"It is both possible and disagreeable. He hinted the other day that he——"
"Loved you? What impertinence!"
"No," said Alice dryly, "he did not commit himself so far. But he hinted that he would like me to be his wife. My father afterwards told me that it would be a good match for me, as Don Pablo is wealthy."
"Wealthy be blessed, Alice," rejoined Hardwick with great heat. "You don't want to take your husband from a museum."
"I don't and I won't," she replied with great determination, "and for that reason I wish you to be my friend."
"Why, what can I do?"
"Stand by me. If my father insists upon my marrying Don Pablo, you must say that I am engaged to you, and this will give you the right to interfere."
Hardwick packed his traps, and swung up the hill on the home-path alongside the girl. "How can you ask me to take up such a position when you know that I love you, Alice?"
"If I thought that you did I should not ask for your help, Julian. But in your own heart you know that you really do not love me. It is only what you call the glamour of my personality that has caught you for the moment. It is not improbable," she went on musingly, "that there may be some slight link between us dating from our meeting in former lives, but it is not a strong enough one to bring us together this time as man and wife!"
"Oh, this mystical talk makes me tired," cried the painter in quite an American way, "it's silly."