"So far as in you lies, I suppose?" she said in-
differently. " I wonder if you ever really did any-
thing worth doing in your life, Mr. Cleveland."

"I wish you would call me Charlie!" he said
impulsively. ' ' Yes. I proposed to you last night.
Wasn't that worth doing?"

IX



i62 The Looker-On

She drew her brows together in a quick frown,
but she made no reply. Fisher was drifting to-
wards them. She turned deliberately, her head
very high, and strolled to meet him.
Charlie glanced over his shoulder, stood a mo-
ment irresolute, then walked away more soberly
than usual towards the bridge, where he was a con-
stant and welcome visitor.
V

"There are plenty of fine chaps in the world
who aren*t to be recognised as such at first sight,"
drawled Bertie Richmond to his young cousin,
MoUy Erie, who was sitting with her feet on the
fender on a very cold winter evening.
*'I'm sure of that," said ivirs. Richmond from
the other side of the fire, with a tender glance at her
husband's loosely knit figure. *'I never thought
there was an inch of heroism in you, Bertie dar-
ling, till that day when we went punting and we
got upset. How brave you were! I've never
forgotten it. It was the beginning of every-
thing."

'* It sounds as if it were nearer being the end," re-
marked Molly, who systematically avoided all sen-
timent. " I don't believe myself that any man can
be. actually heroic and yet not betray it some-
how."

** You're wrong," said Bertie.
'*I don't think so," said Molly. She could be
qtiite as obstinate as most women, and this was a
point upoa which she was very decided.
