She broke off, and her gaze wandered away and came to rest again on the balls. "It's silly of me," she said, speaking very low. "I feel a little afraid." "Just shyness," he said reassuringly, stroking the hand which lay limply in his. "I am old for you; but you will find me the more gentle, possibly the more understanding, on that account. My darling, I love you very dearly. You are so young--you don't know yet what love is. I did not know either until recently. I come to it rather late. But my feeling for you is very deep. Prudence, my dear, I want you. I love you. If you give yourself to me I will do everything in my power to make your life happy. Will you marry me, dear?" It seemed to Prudence that there was only one possible answer. She had understood when she invited him to come down the significance of what she did. She had no right to encourage him to hope and then fail in her part. He was too good a man to play with. She kept her face averted while she answered him, staring fixedly at the shining balls, lying where her last stroke had left them placed conveniently, she realised with grim appreciation of her mistake, for him to score off. "I want to be quite frank with you," she said, her breathing fast through sheer nervousness, an earnest expression on her face, which he thought very modest and gentle. "I don't love you, Mr Morgan,--not in that way--not, I mean, as you love me. I've thought--I should like to marry you. I think that still--only I'm afraid sometimes,--afraid that you'll find me disappointing." He placed his arm very gently round her shoulders and held her so without attempting any warmer caress. He smiled into her troubled eyes. "There is only one thing that could possibly disappoint me," he said, "and that is if I fail to make you happy. Trust me, and all will be well." And so Prudence secured her passage through the door which it seemed he alone could open for her into those wider spaces where she imagined freedom was to be found. But emerging with Edward Morgan at her side, it gradually became clear to her that she was doubly fettered. In blindly groping for her freedom she had given herself to a new and more complete bondage. She would leave the old tyranny behind her, only to pass to another condition of fresh and more pressing obligations. The certainty of these things came to her with the realisation of her distaste for her new responsibility. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. Prudence insisted upon a long engagement.