"As if I did not know that already," she answers, looking at him with sweet reproach.
"That the world may know it, too, then," he urges.
He is most anxious that the marriage shall take place before the trial. Then if, as he fears, the trial should go against her, she will be safe in her position as his wife, and none will dare assail her. But he cannot explain this without wounding her sensitive feelings, so he is forced to admit her denial.
"Not until after the trial, Philip."
"And then?" he asks, eagerly.
"As soon as you please," she answers, with tender blushes glowing all over her beautiful face, and then she laughs musically.
"We are setting the day for our marriage, and we are not even engaged," she laughs, in answer to his aggrieved look.
"We are!" he insists.
"We are not," she declares. "We dissolved our engagement several months ago, and since I became free you have not asked me to renew it."
The tender mischief in the lovely, laughing, dark eyes, almost disconcerts the handsome soldier.