"All right!" said Charlie equably. "Only, you know"--his voice was
suddenly grave--"I was--and am--in earnest."

Molly laughed.

"So far as in you lies, I suppose?" she said indifferently. "I wonder if
you ever really did anything worth doing in your life, Mr. Cleveland."

"I wish you would call me Charlie!" he said impulsively. "Yes. I
proposed to you last night. Wasn't that worth doing?"

She drew her brows together in a quick frown, but she made no reply.
Fisher was drifting towards them. She turned deliberately, her head very
high, and strolled to meet him.

Charlie glanced over his shoulder, stood a moment irresolute, then
walked away more soberly than usual towards the bridge, where he was a
constant and welcome visitor.


V

"There are plenty of fine chaps in the world who aren't to be recognised
as such at first sight," drawled Bertie Richmond to his young cousin,
Molly Erle, who was sitting with her feet on the fender on a very cold
winter evening.

"I'm sure of that," said Mrs. Richmond from the other side of the fire,
with a tender glance at her husband's loosely knit figure. "I never
thought there was an inch of heroism in you, Bertie darling, till that