"No!" cried Jane. "I say _no_!" She stood up, very pale and unapproachable. "I ought not to have allowed you to say all this to me," she said. "I do thank you for wanting me to marry you; but, of course, it is impossible." "Why do you say 'of course'?" asked Mr. Towle, in a surprisingly human voice. "Do you enjoy your life here so much?" "No," said Jane, "I do not; but I'll not marry to escape from it." The Honorable Wipplinger deliberately returned the hoop of diamonds to its nest, snapped the lid of the box shut, and slipped it back into his waistcoat pocket. "I didn't go at it right," he observed meditatively. "Robert should have warned me." He turned to Jane once more. "Do you--er--mind telling me just why you have turned me down so squarely?" "I'd much rather not," said Jane, blushing. "You wouldn't like it." "Oh, yes, I should. For one thing, you think I'm horribly old; don't you?" "Well, you are; aren't you?" "Not so very. I lost my hair in a beastly fever I had in India ten years ago, and it would never grow on top after that. As a matter of fact I'm only forty." "Forty!" repeated Jane, in an indescribable voice. "Why that--" She stopped short. "I'd much better say good night at once," she said contritely, "and--and truly I do thank you. I didn't suppose anyone in the world would ever care about me. And you----" "I certainly do," said Mr. Towle resignedly. "But I went about saying it like a jackass. To tell you the honest truth I was in a regular blue funk. I never proposed marriage to a woman before, and I never shall again. Of course, you don't know me very well, Miss Blythe; but I'm a whole lot nicer than I look. If you only could----" Jane shook her head decidedly. "I'd like you awfully well for--for an uncle," she said regretfully, "or a--grandfather-- There! I oughtn't to have said that. You're really not old enough for a grandfather. But mine are both dead, and I've always thought it would be lovely to have one." Mr. Towle swallowed hard. "Go on," he said encouragingly, "you'd like me well enough for a--a grandfather, but not for a husband. Is that what you meant to say?" "It wasn't a bit nice of me to say it; but then I'm always saying dreadful things. That is why"--dejectedly--"nobody likes me." The Hon. Wipplinger Towle gazed down at the little figure with a very kind look indeed in his deep-set gray eyes. "Oh, well," he said, "I might have known better. I did know better, in fact. But from something Lady Agatha said to me I fancied that perhaps I--that perhaps you----" Jane held out her hand. "Good night," she said. Mr. Towle took the offered hand in his very gently. It was cold, and the small fingers trembled a little in his own big, warm palm. "Good night," he said; "I can't--by force of cruel circumstances--be your--er--grandfather; but I'd like to be your friend, Jane; may I?" "Why, yes," said Jane, smiling up into the keen gray eyes, "you may. And--and I thank you a whole lot for being so--game."