“Yes,” he answered.

Barnes took his hand. The purple of the night sky turned to leaden gray.

“Have you told her?” he asked.

“No. I—I thought I ought to tell you first. You know what a wonderful creature she is.”

“Yes.”

“So—so I thought you ought to know something about the man who wants to ask for her hand.”

“That’s very decent of you. But—I haven’t anything to say about it.”

“She thinks a great deal of you,” said Langdon.

Barnes did not answer.

“I don’t think she’d marry anyone you didn’t approve of,” Langdon laughed nervously. “I never heard a sister admire her brother as she does you.”