"What?"
"Never mind. It wouldn't sound very nice."
"Who cares how it sounds? You might tell me, now we've got so far."
"Well, then, sometimes I wonder whether—the game's worth the candle. Whatever the rotten old proverb means!"
Eileen had no difficulty in understanding the allusion.
"She's got heaps of good things about her," the girl reminded him, being as loyal as was humanly possible to her hostess.
"Heaps. They're simply piled up in the corners of her nature. But I seemed to have wandered into an empty place to-day. By Jove, Eily, I thought I'd made up my mind. I'm fond of the old place at home, and I'd like, to see it done up properly. It isn't as if I'd ever care tuppence again about any girl on earth after—Kathleen. So what does anything of that sort matter? At least that's what I've been asking myself."
"I'm afraid Ena thinks you'll soon be asking her."
"Heavens! I suppose she does. Not that I've said a confounded word. I'm hanged if I know what to do! I tell you what. I'll wait and see how things go to-night. And then—maybe I'll toss up a penny."
"