in

"Please,  please!"

Reluctantly  he  let  her  go — provisionally  and  on
sufferance.
But  there  was  something  in  her  face  that  looked  like
fear.  The  observant  lover  saw  it  at  once,  and  the  in-
vincible lover  tried  to  dispel  it.
"Why  take  it  tragically?"  he  said.  "It's  a  thing  to
laugh  at,  really."

She  shook  a  solemn  head.  "We  must  think  of  them
— you  must  at  any  rate.  You  are  all  they  have,  and  you

179


THE  TIME  SPIRIT


are  bound  to  play  for  them  as  well  as  you  know  how —
aren't  you,  my  dear?"  The  soft  fall  of  her  voice  laid
a  siren's  spell  upon  him.  His  eyes  glowed  as  he  looked
at  her.
"No,  I  don't  see  it  in  that  way,"  he  said.  "Somehow
I  can't.  It's  my  colonial  outlook,  I  daresay — anyhow
there  it  is — simply  us  two.  The  bedrock  of  the  matter
is  you  and  me?  And  when  you  get  down  to  that,  other
people  don't  come  in,  do  they  ?"

Again  she  shook  a  head  rather  woeful  in  its  defiance.
"Poor  Aunt  Harriet  came  to  me  yesterday.  I  wish  you
could  have  seen  her.  This  means  the  end  of  the  world
for  her.  She  almost  went  down  on  her  knees  to  implore
me  not  to  marry  you."

The  Tenderfoot  snorted  with  impatience.  "That's
where  this  old  one-horse  island  gets  me  all  the  time.
Things  are  all  wrong  here.  They're  positively  medi-
eval."

"You  forget" — the  tone  of  the  voice  was  stern  dissent
— "she's  been  thirty  years  a  servant  in  the  Family."

"That  should  make  her  all  the  prouder  to  see  her  niece
married  to  the  head  of  it."  He  was  determined  to  stand
his  ground.
"Yes,  but  she  understands  what  it  means  to  them.
