"Not at all. Hard on your vanity perhaps, but vanity isn't you. Come," Alice sprang to her feet and took up her smart silver-headed cane, "the sun will soon go down and I must get home. We are friends, are we not?" she held out her hand smiling. "Of course we are." Hardwick bent to kiss her hand and she snatched it away swiftly. "That isn't friendship." "Oh, with you friendship means: 'You may look, but you mustn't touch.'" "Exactly," said Miss Enistor lightly, "consider me if you please as a valuable Dresden china ornament under a glass shade." Julian heaved another sigh and began to collect his painting materials. "I must if I must," he admitted grudgingly; "there isn't another man, I suppose?" The face of the girl grew grave. "There isn't another man whom I love, if that is what you mean," she said, reluctantly. "I have not yet met with my Prince, who will wake me to love and beauty. But there is a man who wants, as you do, to be the Prince." "Oh hang him, who is he?" "Don Pablo Narvaez!" "That old mummy. Impossible!" "It is both possible and disagreeable. He hinted the other day that he----" "Loved you? What impertinence!" "No," said Alice dryly, "he did not commit himself so far. But he hinted that he would like me to be his wife. My father afterwards told me that it would be a good match for me, as Don Pablo is wealthy." "Wealthy be blessed, Alice," rejoined Hardwick with great heat. "You don't want to take your husband from a museum." "I don't and I won't," she replied with great determination, "and for that reason I wish you to be my friend." "Why, what can I do?" "Stand by me. If my father insists upon my marrying Don Pablo, you must say that I am engaged to you, and this will give you the right to interfere." Hardwick packed his traps, and swung up the hill on the home-path alongside the girl. "How can you ask me to take up such a position when you know that I love you, Alice?" "If I thought that you did I should not ask for your help, Julian. But in your own heart you know that you really do not love me. It is only what you call the glamour of my personality that has caught you for the moment. It is not improbable," she went on musingly, "that there may be some slight link between us dating from our meeting in former lives, but it is not a strong enough one to bring us together this time as man and wife!" "Oh, this mystical talk makes me tired," cried the painter in quite an American way, "it's silly." "So it is from your point of view," said Miss Enistor promptly, "let us get down to what you call common sense in your robust Anglo-Saxon style. I want you to stand between me and Don Pablo in the way I suggest. Will you?" "Yes. That is--give me a day or two to think the matter over. I am flesh and blood, you know, Alice, and not stone."