"Well, they are here. I wish they weren't; but we'll make the best of it. It doesn't very much matter. The sooner they get used to me and the situation, the better. If there is any one sufficiently good-natured to foster them we will shift our responsibilities. I am going to monopolise you. I've been lonely ever since I said good-bye to you at Coerney." He turned and walked beside her up the short path to the stoep. "I'm glad to have you back," he said. John and Mary, staring with round-eyed curiosity at the pair as they advanced, wondered why their aunt looked so shy, and why she coloured suddenly from neck to brow and looked down and spoke softly. "It's good to be back," she replied. They came to a halt at the steps; and John, remembering his manners, stood up, but continued to stare, unabashed. "This is John," Esme said with greater confidence; and John held out a small, hot hand. "How d'ye do?" he said, as one man to another. Book 2--CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. The young Bainbridges were not slow in coming to a conclusion in regard to the condition of affairs between Hallam and their aunt. John pronounced Hallam as being "all right"; Mary thought him old. But then her aunt was rather old also; aunts are not girls. Mary viewed this mature romance with feminine curiosity. She thought it odd, but immensely interesting. She dogged their footsteps. "I believe Mr Hallam is in love with Auntie," she confided to John, who probably unaided would not have discovered this surprising fact. "I wonder!" John said, and pondered the announcement. "I think I'll ask him," he added. He took an early opportunity of doing so. He waylaid the pair, returning from their morning walk, and planted himself in front of Hallam, looking squarely up at him, with his hands in his pockets, in an attitude so reminiscent of his father as to move Esme to merriment. Her laugh ended in a strangled gurgle when John spoke. "Are you going to marry Auntie, Mr Hallam?" John asked with a directness that would have disconcerted most people, but at which Hallam only smiled. "I am," he answered. "I hope you don't object?" "No; that's all right," John said amiably. "I only wanted to know." And then he wandered off to join Mary and impart the result of his inquiries to her. Hallam looked at Esme, and turned about abruptly, and proceeded to walk with her away from the hotel. "I think," she said hesitatingly, "that I ought to go in." "Not yet," he said. "I want to talk to you. You may think that that was an odd sort of proposal; but the little chap forced my hand. It is amazing how sharp children are. Did you mind?" "No," she replied, confused but extraordinarily happy. "I was a little unprepared though." They had both taken things so much for granted that she had not noticed that he had never definitely asked her to marry him. That part of it did not seem to matter.