"I should think not," returned the girl with the same simple gravity; "not when you've done me the greatest kindness of my whole life!"
"I'm so glad I haven't named the plane yet," said Ben impulsively. "You shall name it."
"There's no name good enough," she replied—"unless—unless we name it for that carrier pigeon that was such a hero in the War. We might name it Cher Ami."
"Good," declared Ben. "It is surely a homing bird."
"And such a cher ami to me," added Geraldine fervently.
Ben wondered if this marvelous girl never smiled.
"You were going to tell me how the ogre was able to force you to marry him," he said.
"Yes; I don't like to tell you. It is very sad, and he crushed me with it." The girl's lips trembled for a silent moment, and Cupid alone knows how Ben longed to kiss them, close to him as they were.
"He said that my father forged two checks, and that he only refrained from prosecuting him because of me. He said my father had promised that he should have me."
Ben scowled, and the dark eyes fixed upon him brightened with sudden eagerness. "But that was a lie—about father giving me to him. I have Daddy's letter here." She felt again inside her blouse. "You will have to know everything—how my poor father was his own worst enemy and came to rely for money on that impossible man."