The meal ended, Vivian and Jerry did not linger over the bottle of old port which the host placed before his guest. Jerry was at an age when love was preferable to strong drink, and Vivian wished to have a confidential conversation with Beatrice as speedily as possible. Therefore by common consent they adjourned to the drawing-room, and found the two girls drinking coffee on the terrace. It was a deliciously warm night with a full moon, and countless stars gemming the heavens. Quite a night for Romeo and Juliet, meet for love and for soft whisperings. Nightingales sang in the thickets, and the trees were absolutely still owing to the want of the faintest breath of wind. Dinah, finishing her coffee, began to get sentimental again and beckoned to Jerry. The two went down the steps into the sleeping gardens, and Beatrice was left seated at the small table on the terrace with Vivian smoking at her elbow. She glanced at him in the ivory moonlight while she made up her mind what to say. He looked slim and handsome in his well-cut clothes--a dark and somewhat stern man with a finely-featured face, Greek in its perfect lines. It seemed impossible that such a man could be involved in sordid roguery. He looked what Beatrice, in spite of circumstances, always believed him to be--an honourable English gentleman who was her lover and who would be her adoring husband. Vivian was staring at the retreating forms of Jerry and Dinah as they vanished down the avenue; but he became conscious that Beatrice was looking at him, and turned to look at her. Surely a lover never saw a fairer maid. In her black dress, with her white neck and arms shining in the moonlight, she looked wonderfully beautiful. The pale glimmer of the moon concealed all the ravages which trouble had made, and she appeared like an angel ready to take flight. It was with difficulty that Paslow prevented himself pressing her in his arms; but until matters were cleared up between them, there was no chance that she would allow him to embrace her. He could see that, in the sad, stern way in which she looked at him, and so restrained himself with a violent effort "Well?" he said stiffly, and prepared to listen. "What is it you wish to know?" she asked in a low voice. "I wish to know what has changed you?" "Am I changed?" "Very much. This morning when I went to Brighton with Dinah, you were bright and happy; now you are sad, and look as though you had received bad news." "Only you can give me bad news," said Beatrice in an embarrassed manner. "I want you to be plain with me to-night, Vivian. I have promised to marry you. I take that promise back----" "Beatrice--oh Beatrice!" "Unless you satisfy me that you really and truly love me." "Oh, my darling, is there any question of that?" "There is every question. It is easy for a man to say that he loves a woman; it is not so easy to prove it." "I can prove it, in any way you will."