"Lose me?" she echoed.
"Inevitably. Listen, girl! In a year my term of service is up, and if the war's over I shall leave the army, come to the States to you, and—and—do you think I could become a good American?"
"If—if you have the proper teacher," the girl answered, with a flash of mischief.
"All aboard for the Saxonia!" It was Consul Reynolds, fussed, perspiring, overwhelmed with the sense of his duty, who bustled up to where the Shermans were chatting with Lady Crandall and the general. Reynolds' sharp eye caught an intimate tableau on the other side of the auto. "And that means you, Miss Step-lively New York," he shouted, "much as I hate to—ah—interrupt."
Jane Gerson saw her two precious hampers stemming a way through the crowd on the backs of porters, bound for the tender's deck. She could not let them out of her sight.
"Wait, Jane!" His hands were on her arms, and he would not let her go. "Will you be my teacher? I want no other."
"My terms are high." She tried to smile, though trembling lips belied her.
"I'd pay with my life," he whispered in a quick gust of passion. "Here's my promise——"
He took her in his arms, and between them passed the world-old pledge of man and girl.
THE END