"Certainly. Have you forgotten—"

"That it was my own gift. No, darling, but I believe I have forgotten the cost," he said, quickly.

She stared at him in astonishment.

Then she burst into a laugh.

"How absent-minded you have become," she declared. "I fear that accident injured your brain, August."

"It's barely possible," he said, forcing a laugh.

"Why, you goose, you know that ring was a present from papa on my last birthday, and he said it was worth a good thousand. How could you forget?"

"Surely, how could I?" he returned, with a glittering eye. "I—I don't feel just right, that's a fact."

"And it may have been very imprudent for you to come out so soon after your fall," evincing anxiety.

"Oh, no; I guess not," was his light reply. He lifted her hand again.