"Assuredly not."
"What caused you to announce our engagement?"
She laughed, but from sudden embarrassment.
"It was silly, wasn't it! Really I do not exactly know; a sudden impulse, and the words were spoken. It occurred to me that our intimacy could be accounted for in no other way."
"So I supposed. Well, there is no harm done, but now, you understand, we must play out the game."
"Play it out?"
"Surely; act natural, permit no suspicion to be aroused. Even if I should feel impelled by duty, to kiss you, it is my privilege."
"Why—why, you cannot mean that!"
"Oh, but I do. This is no threat that I shall insist on carrying the matter to such an extreme, yet I must insist on the right if it becomes necessary. You would scarcely dare refuse, would you?"
"No," she confessed, her eyes suddenly meeting his, "I—I suppose not; but—but is it necessary to discuss that now?"