She blushed deeply.
"Call me that name," he repeated. "You said it once today."
"Dearest!"
Not that."
"O darling!"
"Not that."
"Husband!"
She was won. The rosy gate from which the word had issued was closed with a seal.
Ripton did not enjoy his introduction to the caged bird of beauty that night. He received a lesson in the art of pumping from the worthy landlady below, up to an hour when she yawned, and he blinked, and their common candle wore with dignity the brigand's hat of midnight, and cocked a drunken eye at them from under it.