height of their fancies. We in our time are much more sane and
level-headed. And it's much better for us in the long run."

She made no reply. Only very gently she withdrew her hand from
his.

"I'm not a knight of old," he went on, turning his handsome, sun-
browned face towards her,--"but I'm sure I love you as much as
ever the Sieur Amadis could have loved his unknown lady. So much
indeed do I love you that I couldn't write about it to save my
life!--though I did write verses at Oxford once--very bad ones!"
He laughed. "But I can do one thing the Sieur Amadis didn't do--I
can keep faithful to my Vision of the glory unattainable'--and if
I don't marry you I'll marry no-body--so there!"

She looked at him curiously and wistfully.

"You will not be so foolish," she said--"You will not put me into
the position of the Sieur Amadis, who married some one who loved
him, merely out of pity!"

He sprang up from the grass beside her.

"No, no! I won't do that, Innocent! I'm not a coward! If you can't
love me, you shall not marry me, just because you are sorry for
me! That would be intolerable! I wouldn't have you for a wife at
all under such circumstances. I shall be perfectly happy as a
bachelor--perhaps happier than if I married."

"And what about Briar Farm?" she asked.