“I regret so much, Mr. Riatt, that a previous attachment prevents my accepting--but, my dear man, that isn’t at all what I mean. Do you suppose Wickham and Nancy will believe me just because I walk out of this room and say you asked me to marry you? No, we must have some proof to offer.” “Something in writing?” She hesitated. “No,” she said, “one really can’t go about with a framed proposal like a college degree. I want a public demonstration.” “Something with a band or a phonograph?” She was evidently thinking it out--or wished to appear to be. “Not quite that either. This would be more like it. Suppose I send for Nancy to come here now and consult with me as to whether I shall accept your offer or not. If I told her before you, she could hardly refuse to believe it. And you would be safe, for there isn’t the least doubt what advice she will give me.” “You think she will advise you against me?” Christine nodded. “She will try to save you from the awful fate she is reserving for her brother.” She touched the bell. “Do you feel nervous?” “A trifle,” he answered, and indeed he did, for he knew better than Christine could, how strange this coming interview would appear to Mrs. Almar after the conversation before lunch. He consoled himself, however, by the thought that train-time was drawing near, “and then, please heaven,” he said to himself, “I need never see any of them again.” “Isn’t it strange,” began Miss Fenimer, and then as a servant appeared in the doorway: “Oh, will you please ask Mrs. Almar to come here for a few minutes and speak to me. Tell her it is very important. Isn’t it strange,” she went on, when the man had gone, “that I’m not a bit nervous, and yet I have so much more at stake than you have.” “You have a good deal clearer notion of your rôle than I.” “Your rôle is easy. You confirm everything I say, and contrive to look a little depressed at the end. Nothing could be simpler.” He hesitated. “Simpler than to look depressed when you refuse me?” “No one really likes to be refused,” she said. “Even I, hardened as I am, felt a certain distaste for the idea that Laura had been urging me on your reluctant acceptance. By the way, you did seem able to say no, after all your talk on our unfortunate drive about no man’s being able to refuse a woman.” “Oh, a third party,” he answered. “That’s a very different thing. Had it been you yourself, with streaming eyes--” He looked at her sitting very cool and straight at a safe distance. “I don’t think I could cry to save my life,” she observed. “Certainly not to save my reputation.” He did not answer. The situation had begun to seem like a game to him, or some absurd farce in which he was only reading some regular actor’s part; and when presently the door opened to admit Mrs. Almar, he felt as if she had been waiting all the time in the wings. Nancy stopped with a gesture of surprise, on finding that she was interrupting a tête-à-tête. Christine ignored her astonishment.