"That meant nothing, as you know very well." "I do not know anything of the sort." "Then you _are_ a 'temporary gentleman' indeed! We spoke just now of that bargain----" "Which, through your own actions, doesn't exist." "Of course it exists. You talk in riddles!" "When you put your mind to this one, it will cease to be a riddle. You'll guess it in a moment. You'll see what you've done. Probably Severance would have told you before this if he'd had the chance. The explanation, if there has to be one, will come better from him than from me. But I may as well break one small detail to you before we get to the hotel; I've no intention of leaving him alone with you for a minute, or any part of a minute, before he sails." "How dare you hope to lay down the law for me?" Marise almost gasped, over a wildly-throbbing heart. "I shall see Lord Severance alone as much as I choose--and as he chooses." "You can try," said Garth. "So can he." "_You_ won't have any chance to prevent it! You shan't even come into my mother's suite at the Plaza Hotel if you attempt to put on these ridiculous airs of being my master. I wonder who you think you _are_, Major Garth?" "The important thing--to you and your mother and to Severance--is not so much what I think I am, as what other people will think I am. They will think I'm your husband. I understand that this marriage idea was entirely for appearance' sake?" "Exactly!" cried Marise. "Then it's up to you and me to look after the appearances. I warned you this morning that you hadn't thought the thing out enough, and that you'd better think hard, then and there. Perhaps you did. If so, you----" "I didn't. How could I? There was no time." "That's what you said. Consequently I had to do the thinking for you. And the arranging of your future. I never was a slow chap. My life was always more or less of a hustle since I was a very small kid, and I had to keep my thinking machine on the jump. The war has speeded it up a bit. This morning, when you announced that you'd be ready to be married in an hour or less, I'll tell you just what I had to do. I had to inform the manager of your hotel that I was marrying Miss Sorel, and that we couldn't get away from New York for a few days----" "You--dared to do that!" "I got my V.C. for doing something almost as dangerous. I told him he must give us a suite----" "You--you _devil_!" "Thank you. I guess even that sounds more natural from a wife to a husband than 'Major Garth.'" "You don't dream I'm going to occupy a suite with you, I suppose?" "I don't dream. I know you are going to occupy that suite, unless you want me openly to leave you on our wedding day. This comes of your not thinking what would happen next. You'd better choose now, because we'll soon be at the Plaza. Is it to be my hotel or not?" "You said--when my mother explained to Lord Pobblebrook that you had a mission--you said you were going West."