'You brute!' she cried. 'I'll never speak to you again.'
'Why do you make such rash statements? You know you couldn't hold you tongue for two minutes together.'
'What a libel! I never can get a word in edgeways when I'm with you,' she returned. 'You're such a chatterbox.'
'I don't know why you put on that aggrieved air. You seem to forget that it's I who ought to be furious.'
'On the contrary, you behaved very unkindly to me a month ago, and I'm only here to-day because I have a Christian disposition.'
'You forget that for the last four weeks I've been laboriously piecing together the fragments of a broken heart,' he answered.
'It was entirely your fault,' she laughed. 'If you hadn't been so certain I was going to accept you, I should never have refused. I couldn't resist the temptation of saying no, just to see how you took it.'
'I flatter myself I took it very well.'
'You didn't,' she answered. 'You showed an entire lack of humour. You might have known that a nice woman doesn't accept a man the first time he asks her. It was very silly of you to go to Homburg as if you didn't care. How was I to know that you meant to wait a month before asking me again?'
He looked at her for a moment calmly.
'I haven't the least intention of asking you again.'
But it required much more than this to put Julia Crowley out of countenance.
'Then why on earth did you invite me to tea?'
'May I respectfully remind you that you invited yourself?' he protested.
'That's just like a man. He will go into irrelevant details,' she answered.
'Now, don't be cross,' he smiled.
'I shall be cross if I want to,' she exclaimed, with a little stamp of her foot. 'You're not being at all nice to me.'
He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, and his eyes twinkled.
'Do you know what I'd do if I were you?'
'No, what?'
'Well, _I_ can't suffer the humiliation of another refusal. Why don't you propose to me?'
'What cheek!' she cried.
Their eyes met, and she smiled.
'What will you say if I do?'
'That entirely depends on how you do it.'
'I don't know how,' she murmured plaintively.
'Yes, you do,' he insisted. 'You gave me an admirable lesson. First you go on your bended knees, and then you say you're quite unworthy of me.'
'You are the most spiteful creature I've ever known,' she laughed. 'You're just the sort of man who'd beat his wife.'
'Every Saturday night regularly,' he agreed.
She hesitated, looking at him.
'Well?' he said.
'I shan't,' she answered.
'Then I shall continue to be a brother to you.'
She got up and curtsied.
'Mr. Lomas, I am a widow, twenty-nine years of age, and extremely eligible. My maid is a treasure, and my dressmaker is charming. I'm clever enough to laugh at your jokes and not so learned as to know where they come from.'
'Really you're very long winded. I said it all in four words.'
'You evidently put it too briefly, since you were refused,' she smiled.
She stretched out her hands, and he took them.
'I think I'll do it by post,' she said. 'It'll sound so much more becoming.'
'You'd better get it over now.'
'You know, I don't really want to marry you a bit. I'm only doing it to please you.'
'I admire your unselfishness.'
'You will say yes if I ask you?'
'I refuse to commit myself.'
'Obstinate beast,' she cried.
She curtsied once more, as well as she could since he was firmly holding her hands.
'Sir, I have the honour to demand your hand in marriage.'
He bowed elaborately.
'Madam, I have much pleasure in acceding to your request.'
Then he drew her towards him and put his arms around her.
'I never saw anyone make such a fuss about so insignificant a detail as marriage,' she murmured.
'You have the softest lips I ever kissed,' he said.
'I wish to goodness you'd be serious,' she laughed. 'I've got something very important to say to you.'
'You're not going to tell me the story of your past life,' he cried.
'No, I was thinking of my engagement ring. I make a point of having a cabochon emerald: I collect them.'
'No sooner said than done,' he cried.
He took a ring from his pocket and slipped it on her finger. She looked from it to him.
'You see, I know that you made a specialty of emeralds.'
'Then you meant to ask me all the time?'
'I confess it to my shame: I did,' he laughed.
'Oh, I wish I'd known that before.'
'What would you have done?'
'I'd have refused you again, you silly.'
* * *
Dick Lomas and Mrs. Crowley said nothing about their engagement to anyone, since it seemed to both that the marriage of a middle-aged gentleman and a widow of uncertain years could concern no one but themselves. The ceremony was duly performed in a deserted church on a warm September day, when there was not a soul in London. Mrs. Crowley was given away by her solicitor, and the verger signed the book. The happy pair went to Court Leys for a fortnight's honeymoon and at the beginning of October returned to London; they made up their minds that they would go to America later in the autumn.
'I want to show you off to all my friends in New York,' said Julia, gaily.
'Do you think they'll like me?' asked Dick.
'Not at all. They'll say: That silly little fool Julia Crowley has married another beastly Britisher.'
'That is more alliterative than polite,' he retorted.
'On the other hand my friends and relations are already saying: What on earth has poor Dick Lomas married an American for? We always thought he was very well-to-do.'
They went into roars of laughter, for they were in that state of happiness when the whole world seemed the best of jokes, and they spent their days in laughing at one another and at things in general. Life was a pleasant thing, and they could not imagine why others should not take it as easily as themselves.
They had engaged rooms at the _Carlton_ while they were furnishing a new house. Each had one already, but neither would live in the other's, and so it had seemed necessary to look out for a third. Julia vowed that there was an air of bachelordom about Dick's house which