"And your reason for all this is—what? Tell me again, please."
"You make my task harder," he said, coldly. "My reason is that I love you."
Again, Patricia was silent for a time. Then:
"How do you propose to carry out this chivalrous conduct? Who will marry us, if I agree to your absurd proposal?"
"It is not absurd. It is the only logical thing for you to do. Doctor Moreley will marry us. He came with me, in my special train." She caught at the arms of the chair, and clung to them. "Mrs. Moreley, with Evelyn and Kate, accompany him. It is a short ride to where the cars are sidetracked, waiting. You can ride there in the morning—or go there with me this evening, if you will."
"Do ... they ... know—?"
"They know nothing save the one fact that we are to be married, that Doctor Moreley is to perform the ceremony, and that the members of his family are to act as witnesses. Nobody knows anything at all, save that. Nobody ever shall know. Your absence from New York has occasioned no suspicion—save only in the mind of one man, Radnor. The fact of our marriage will be published and broadcast at once, and even his suspicions will be stilled."
"And ... afterward ... after we are married—what?"
"We will discuss that question after the ceremony."
"No. We will discuss it now. Afterward—what?"