"Cleone, you think too much," he chided her. "Next you will accuse me of loving Ann Nutley!" It was a master-stroke, and he knew it.

"You didn't? Not a tiny bit?"

"Not an atom!"

"And no one—in Paris?"

"No one. I have pretended, but they all knew that I had already lost my heart."

"You pretended?... Oh!"

"One must, sweetest."

"But—"

He drew her closer.

"But never, most beautiful, did I become engaged—twice in one evening!" He stifled the cry that rose to her lips.