Besides, what could I do? Even Nancy herself told us no one would believe
us unless I accepted you--at least for a time."

"For what time?"

"Oh, don't let us cross bridges until we get to them. We are hardly
engaged yet--Max! I must practise calling you Max, mustn't I?" In
attempting to repress an irrepressible smile she developed an unknown
dimple in her left cheek. The sight of it made his tone particularly
relentless as he answered:

"If by the fifteenth of this month you have not broken this engagement,
I'll announce its termination myself."

"And you," she went on, as if he had not spoken, "must get into the habit
of calling me Christine."

"Listen to me," he said, and he took her by the shoulders with a
gesture that no one could have mistaken for a caress. "I do not intend
to marry you."

"I see you feel no doubt of my wishes in the matter."

"I wonder where I got the idea."

"Be reassured," she said, finding herself released. "My intentions are
honorable. I would not marry any really nice man absolutely against his
will. Although I did say to myself the very first time I saw you, coming
downstairs in that well-cut coat of yours--or is it the shoulders?--I did
say: 'I could be happy with that man, happier, that is, than with Ned.'