against my will."

"I am quite capable of doing so," he told her coolly, "if I think it
worth my while."

"Worth your while!" she exclaimed, staring at him as if she doubted his
sanity.

"Even so," he said. "When I have fully satisfied myself that a heartless
little flirt like you can be transformed into a virtuous and amiable
wife. It may prove a difficult process, I admit, and perhaps not
altogether a pleasant one. But I shall not shirk it on that account."

He leant back against the mantelpiece with a gesture that plainly said
that so far as he was concerned the matter was ended.

But it was not so with Doris. She stood before him for several seconds
absolutely motionless, all the vivid colour gone from her face, her blue
eyes blazing with speechless fury. At length, with a sudden, fierce
movement, she tore the ring he had given her from her finger and held it
out to him.

"Take it!" she said, her voice high-pitched and tremulous. "This is the
end!"

He did not stir a muscle.

"Not yet, I think," he said.

She flashed a single glance at him in which pride and uncertainty were