sign my aunt's agreement I should carry it out, in
honour, to the letter."

"Rather, my own love! It's just your honour
that I appeal to. The only way to play the game
is to play it. There's no limit to what your aunt
can do for you."

"Do you mean in the way of marrying me?"

"What else should I mean? Marry proper-
ly"

"And then? " Kate asked as he hung fire.

"And then well, I will talk with you. I ll re
sume relations."

She looked about her and picked up her parasol.
"Because you re not so afraid of any one else in the
world as you are of her? My husband, if I should
marry, would be, at the worst, less of a terror? If
that's what you mean, there may be something in
it. But doesn't it depend a little also on what you
mean by my getting a proper one? However," Kate
added as she picked out the frill of her little um
brella, " I don't suppose your idea of him is quite
that he should persuade you to live with us."

"Dear no not a bit." He spoke as not resent
ing either the fear or the hope she imputed; met
both imputations, in fact, with a sort of intellectual
relief. " I place the case for you wholly in your
aunt's hands. I take her view, with my eyes shut;
I accept in all confidence any man she selects. If
he's good enough for her elephantine snob as she
is he's good enough for me; and quite in spite of

[[21]]

p020 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p021w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p022

v?