Leonie looked from one to the other.
"I will marry you this day month, Sir Walter." She threw up her hand as he laughed triumphantly. "Wait one moment! But until that day I will have nothing to do with you, nothing. I will not meet you nor go out with you, nor bother about a trousseau, nor the future in any way. I shall go out and come in when I like, and go where and how I like. I shall meet whom I like. I won't deceive you, I shall meet Jan Cuxson just as often as I like. And I should advise you not to interfere with me in any way. He is young and strong, and, as an old friend of the family, might resent it. You can trust him, he is a gentleman—which means—oh, well!—you will find the exact meaning in a French dictionary."
She crossed to the door, turned, and looked, slowly from one to the other.
"Is the bargain concluded?"
"Yes!—I'll take yer on those terms—but you'll pay a 'undred per cent interest on the month, I've lent yer—an' then some I give yer my word!"
The door shut quietly as the man sank into a chair.
"Batty!" he said as he mopped his bald head, "absolutely balmy. But it's worth while—it's worth while—let her have 'er month—let 'er—I shall have a whole lifetime to break 'er in."
CHAPTER XVIII
"Why fret about them if to-day be sweet!"—Omar Khayyám.
The great grey breakers heaved themselves skywards, paused for half a second, split and crashed down upon the rocks the next morning as Leonie and Jan Cuxson sat on the sands under the lowering sky.