“Poor girl!”

She smiled gravely. A certain scheme, from which hitherto he had shrank, now appeared practical.

“Lucy!”

“Yes, I suppose we ought to be going,” was her reply.

“Lucy, I want to ask something of you that I have never asked before.”

At the serious note in his voice she stepped frankly and kindly towards him.

“What, Cecil?”

“Hitherto never — not even that day on the lawn when you agreed to marry me — ”

He became self-conscious and kept glancing round to see if they were observed. His courage had gone.