Her soft little laugh bubbled over. "We seem to have quite settled
it. And I hadn't the slightest notion of agreeing to anything so
ridiculous when I ventured that indiscreet remark about an
abduction." She looked up at him with smiling insolence. "You're
only an adventurer, you know. I daresay you haven't even paid for
the car in which you were going to kidnap me."

"No," he admitted cheerfully.

"I wonder what Dad will think of it,"

"He'll thank Heaven you didn't present him with a French or
Italian count to support."

"I believe he will. His objection to Gus was that he looked like a
foreigner and never had done a day's work in his life. Poor Gus!
He didn't measure up to Dad's idea of a man. Now I suppose you
could earn a living for us."

"I'm not expecting you to take in sewing."

"Are you going to do the independent if Dad cuts up rough?" she
asked saucily.

"Independent is the word." He smiled with a sudden appreciation of
the situation. "And I take it he means to cut up rough. I wired
him to-day I was going to ask you to marry me."

"You didn't."