Some student of love has said that kisses gain force by delay. Jermyn's was the first kiss Kate Trewman had ever received from a man who professed to love her, so between astonishment and many other things which she did not understand and could not have called up and thought about at the time had her life depended upon it, she did not resist the kiss nor the several that followed it. "My angel!" said Jermyn. "You will be my wife?" "How can I help it?" asked Kate, softly, "after--after what has happened?" "Hurrah!" sounded a child's voice behind them. "Trixy!" "I didn't mean to do nothin'," the child explained. "I was just walkin' along behind you, 'cause you both looked so splendid, and walked so nice together, but when you kissed each other----" "Trixy!" exclaimed Kate, "I did nothing of the sort!" "Didn't you? Then I don't think you was very polite." CHAPTER XVII. THE COURAGE OF JOY. Some of the least explicable changes of manner are the most genuine, so it is not necessary to assign any reason for the fact that on the way back to the hotel Jermyn and Kate, who had both been under considerable restraint a few moments before, talked as freely and rapidly as if they had been acquainted for years. The only indication that there was more than one thought between them was the care with which they kept Trixy in sight and reach, so that her little tongue could not wag until it had been put under proper curb by Trixy's mother. On the other hand, they kept her far enough from them for her not to overhear anything that they were saying to each other, and their frequent recalls, whenever the child attempted to skip or run, had the effect of soon making Trixy appear as if she were a prisoner under close guard. Even when the hotel was reached the child was kept within view yet out of hearing, while Jermyn and Kate sat down with Trif. Fortunately for them, Harry and Fenie just then thought of some one whom they wanted to find in the ball-room, and they were glad of some one who would keep Trif from being alone. Jermyn began with military directness by saying: "Miss Trewman, may I ask one of my oldest friends to congratulate me?" "Yes," Kate replied, "if you will let her include me in the congratulations." "Oh, you dear people!" exclaimed Trif. "There's nothing that I would rather have heard." "You don't think it shockingly sudden?" asked Kate. "Not I--considering what either of you might have missed by delay." "I assure you," said Kate, "that not a word would have been said about it for months--it all came so suddenly--if it hadn't been for Trixy." "Where is that child?" asked Jermyn, rising in alarm and looking in every direction. "She's looking at her dolls," Trif replied. "No, she isn't. Dear me! I arranged those dolls for her on a chair not ten minutes ago." "Not ten minutes ago?" asked Jermyn dreamily. "It seems ten hours ago--ten days," whispered Kate dreamily.