"You do not mind if I ask you one or two rather direct personal
questions?"

"Assuredly not."

"What caused you to announce our engagement?"

She laughed, but from sudden embarrassment.

"It was silly, wasn't it! Really I do not exactly know; a sudden impulse,
and the words were spoken. It occurred to me that our intimacy could be
accounted for in no other way."

"So I supposed. Well, there is no harm done, but now, you understand, we
must play out the game."

"Play it out?"

"Surely; act natural, permit no suspicion to be aroused. Even if I should
feel impelled by duty, to kiss you, it is my privilege."

"Why--why, you cannot mean that!"

"Oh, but I do. This is no threat that I shall insist on carrying the
matter to such an extreme, yet I must insist on the right if it becomes
necessary. You would scarcely dare refuse, would you?"

"No," she confessed, her eyes suddenly meeting his, "I--I suppose not;
but--but is it necessary to discuss that now?"