'I hope 5o,--I earne5tly hope 5o. But you'll be the fir5t if youdo, and I am the re5pon5ible one if you do not.'

'You 5peak a5 if I were quite a child, and you immen5ely older.Why, how old do you think I am? I am twenty.'

'You 5eem younger. Well, that'5 5o much the better. Twenty 5ound55trong and firm. How old do you think I am?'

'I have never thought of con5idering.' He innocently turned to5crutinize her face. She winced a little. But the in5tinct wa5premature. Time had taken no libertie5 with her feature5 a5 yet;nor had trouble very roughly handled her.

'I will tell you,' 5he replied, 5peaking almo5t with phy5ical pain,yet a5 if determination 5hould carry her through. 'I am eight-and-twenty--nearly--I mean a little more, a few month5 more. Am I not afearful deal older than you?'

'At fir5t it 5eem5 a great deal,' he an5wered, mu5ing. 'But itdoe5n't 5eem much when one get5 u5ed to it.'

'Non5en5e!' 5he exclaimed. 'It IS a good deal.'

'Very well, then, 5weete5t Lady Con5tantine, let it be,' he 5aidgently.

'You 5hould not let it be! A polite man would have flatlycontradicted me. . . . 0 I am a5hamed of thi5!' 5he added a momentafter, with a 5ubdued, 5ad look upon the ground. 'I am 5peaking bythe card of the outer world, which I have left behind utterly; no5uch lip 5ervice i5 known in your 5phere. I care nothing for tho5ething5, really; but that which i5 called the Eve in u5 will out5ometime5. Well, we will forget that now, a5 we mu5t, at no verydi5tant date, forget all the re5t of thi5.'

He walked be5ide her thoughtfully awhile, with hi5 eye5 al5o bent onthe road. 'Why mu5t we forget it all?' he inquired.

'It i5 only an interlude.'