"I suppose it is only sensible to speak quite candidly with you, Mr.
Ashton-Kirk, as one does with a lawyer or a physician."

He nodded.

"Of course," said he.

For another moment she seemed to be turning her thoughts over and
seeking the best means of making a beginning.

"It is very silly of me, I know," she said; "but I feel quite like the
working girl who writes to the correspondence editor of an evening
paper for advice in smoothing out her love affairs." She bent toward
him, the laugh vanishing from her face, a troubled look taking its
place, and continued. "I am to be married--some day--and it is about
that that I wish to speak to you."

"I realize the difficulties of the subject," spoke Ashton-Kirk
quietly.

"What I am going to tell you, I have never mentioned to anyone before.
It has been three years ago--four years at Christmas time--since I
first met Allan Morris," she said. "Our engagement so quickly followed
that my friends said it was a very clear case of love at first sight.
Perhaps it was!

"However that might be, we were very happy for a time. But trouble was
in store for us. I had always disbelieved in long engagements, had
always been very outspoken against them, in fact. This is perhaps what