For answer he sprang forward and caught her in his arms. In the movement he brushed roughly against the table; there was a little crash, and poor Mr Gainsborough's birthday gift lay smashed to bits on the floor. For the second time their love bore hard on Mr Gainsborough's crockery. Startled they turned to look, and then they both broke into merry laughter. The trumpery thing had seemed a sign to them, and now the sign was broken. Their first kiss was mirthful over its destruction. With a sigh of joy she disengaged herself from him. "That's settled then," said Harry. He paused a moment. "You had Janie and Bob Broadley here to-night? I saw them as I lay hidden by the road. Does that kind of engagement attract you, Cecily?" "Ours won't be like that," she said, laughing triumphantly. "Don't let's have one at all," he suggested, coming near to her again. "Let's have no engagement. Just a wedding." "What?" she cried. "It must be a beastly time," he went on, "and all the talk there's been about us will make it more beastly still. Fancy Miss S. and all the rest of them! And--do you particularly want to wait? What I want is to be settled down, here with you." Her eyes sparkled as she listened; she was in the mood, she was of the stuff, for any adventure. "I should like to run off with you now," said he. "I don't want to leave you at all, you see." "Run off now?" She gave a joyful little laugh. "That's just what I should like!" "Then we'll do it," he declared. "Well, to-morrow morning anyhow." "Do you mean it?" she asked. "Do you say no to it?" She drew herself up with pride. "I say no to nothing that you ask of me." Their hands met again as she declared her love and trust. "You've really come to me?" he heard her murmur. "Back to Blent and back to me?" "Yes," he answered, smiling. She had brought into his mind again the truth she did not know. He had no time to think of it, for she offered him her lips again. The moment when he might have told her thus went by. It was but an impulse; for he still loved what he was doing, and took delight in the risks of it. And he could not bear so to impair her joy. Soon she must know, but she should not yet be robbed of her joy that it was she who could bring him back to Blent. For him in his knowledge, for her in her ignorance, there was an added richness of pleasure that he would not throw away, even although now he believed that were the truth known she would come to him still. Must not that be, since now he, even he, would come to her, though the truth had been otherwise? "There's a train from Fillingford at eight in the morning. I'm going back there to-night. I've got a fly waiting by the Pool--if the man hasn't gone to sleep and the horse run away. Will you meet me there? We'll go up to town and be married as soon as we can--the day after to-morrow, I suppose." "And then----?" "Oh, then just come back here. We can go nowhere but here, Cecily." "Just come back and----?"