"Jimmy, oh, Jimmy, dear, you look so ill. Hasn't anyone taken care of you all these months?"
He laughed happily, knowing now that everything was well. "I will tell you all about it by and by." Then he stopped, regardless of the indignant glances of the ticket collector, who was thinking of his cooling breakfast. "Shall I send my bag to the hotel, or shall I leave it here?"
She understood his meaning. "Send it to the hotel," she answered in a low voice.
Nothing more was said until they were clear of the station yard, then, "Where can we go and have a quiet talk?" he asked.
For answer she led him into a little public park near by. It was deserted at that hour, and he got the chance to speak at once.
"Lalage," he said in a tone she hardly recognised, "I've broken my promise to you. I've been ruining my health with liquor, trying to forget you; and I've been engaged to another woman. I know you're infinitely too good for me in every way; but I've come to ask you to marry me, not in the distant future, but now, at once, as soon as I can get a licence."
She stood very still, and, for a few seconds, he feared he had come too late, then she spoke haltingly. "Jimmy, I'm afraid ... after the past ... that you wouldn't trust me. And that would be even worse than this."
He took her hand. "Lalage, dearest, there's no question of that now, there can be no question of it when we're married. You say no one has taken care of me. Won't you do it, sweetheart, and save me from myself?"
She looked at him with shining eyes. "You haven't said yet why you want to marry me, Jimmy."
Once more he took her in his arms unresisting. "Because I love you, dearest, because you're everything in this wide world to me, because I honour you and trust you above all women, and because life would not be worth living unless I had you as my wife."