am away with all those people, will you keep me from temptation?"
She hesitated for a minute, not knowing whether he was jesting or not.
"Believe me," she said, at length, "I will try."
[VI]
DERMOTT GIVES A DINNER AT THE OLD LODGE
The following morning, as she stood clipping the roses, Dermott McDermott leaned over the hedge.
"Will you marry me, Katrine?" he said, with no salutation whatever.
"Will you wait," she inquired, "till I've finished cutting the roses?"
"But I'm in earnest," he announced.
She held the clippers in her gloved hand to shade the sun from her eyes, regarding him in her friendly, companionable way.