‘You know I do. I’m sure I’ve told you so often enough. It’s no good going on in the proper way and pretending I don’t,’ said poor Maud, who felt that her maiden’s privilege of fibbing was taken away from her by force of circumstances. ‘I have loved you ever since I knew you. You don’t know how hard it has been to call you “sister.”’ Maud nestled more comfortably against his shoulder then. ‘You dear boy! Are you sure?’ ‘Quite sure. I’ve had a few youthful spoons, Maud. I won’t lie to you, even in a moment like this. But I’ve never really loved a woman till I loved you; and I feel as if I could love as well as most men. You shall be the one to prove if it is not so.’ ‘You dear boy!’ said Maud again. ‘Sometimes you’ve complained that I haven’t kissed you often enough, Maud. If you don’t mind, I’ll make up for the deficiency now.’ Maud did not seem to mind at all. She turned up a happy face, which was certainly well kissed. ‘I’m glad you’re not my brother, Tor,’ said Maud, when the kissing was over. ‘So am I,’ he answered gravely. ‘This is much more satisfactory, isn’t it?’ ‘Very much more,’ she answered; and by-and-by she added, ‘and Tor’s a much nicer name than Phil. Phil doesn’t suit you: it sounds too small. I wonder I never thought of it before.’ ‘If we stay here much longer, we shall have other people upon us,’ remarked Tor. ‘Let us go, then, and hide,’ cried Maud eagerly. ‘We’ve got such lots to say.’ ‘Haven’t you lots to say to Phil?’ ‘Oh, Phil can wait!’ Not displeased at this sentiment, Tor led Maud away to a secluded part of the park, where they passed a couple of hours in a fashion infinitely satisfactory to themselves, but not interesting to the historian. They were soon missed by those that remained; but Phil and Miss Marjory only smiled, and said they had better not be sought for. Phil told his story to her, and received a good deal of the verbal castigation for which Miss Marjory was famous. ‘Not trust Mr. Torwood! You who had known him eighteen years! I never heard anything so disgraceful in my life! You ought to be ashamed of yourself! I knew he was to be trusted before I had known him eighteen hours.’ ‘We cannot all be so clever as you, Miss Marjory.’ ‘Now——’ she began warningly; and Phil was silenced, though not for long. ‘Don’t hate me, Miss Marjory, please.’ ‘I don’t think you’re worth hating.’ ‘No, I’m not—I assure you I’m not. You’ve just hit the mark. I’m not worth your lofty scorn and contempt, so please reserve it for a more deserving object.’ And then Miss Marjory laughed, and she and Phil made friends. ‘Ah, my dear,’ she said, an hour or two later, as she met Maud dancing and singing along the corridor, ‘didn’t I give you good advice, when I told you that you had better wait for Mr. Torwood?’ ‘You did indeed, Miss Marjory.’ ‘Was I very wrong in asserting that he might possibly resemble the adored “Phil”?’ Maud kissed her suddenly on both cheeks.