"I wanted to give ye time," he explained, "to feel surer of yourself and me."
"I knew it," she exclaimed. "You feared I might suspect you of interested motives. But the surest proof of my love for you has been my certainty that you care for me for myself alone, not for what I bring."
"That's the sweetest thing that ever has come from your lips," announced the soldier. "Not another word till I taste a sweeter."
He was about to illustrate his meaning when Barney's voice was heard, discreetly inquiring of the landscape for "himself."
Affecting, for the first time, to perceive his superior, "Och, are ye there, sorr?" saluting, he inquired.
"Here or there, I'm beside myself with joy," remarked Scarlett sotto voce. "Well, Barney, what's that you bring?"
"If appearances are not desayving, sorr, I'm thinking 'tis a letther. Our rint-roll, I'm thinking." He stood by with an air of partnership while Scarlett opened the envelope.
"Your rent-roll!" Puzzled, Evelyn looked at the address. "'Sir Gerald Scarlett.' Is that some joke?"
"A hereditary wan, begorra," Barney hastened to assure her. "It runs in our family."
"More roll than rent, though." Scarlett held out to her a long, legally drawn-up document.