She looked at me steadily, let her eyes fall, and answered,

“Yes, I believe you are in earnest.”

I glanced around to see that nobody was in sight and, Eugenio, I kissed her. “Will you marry me?” I asked her.

She was so long silent that I feared my kiss had made her indignant.

“Charlie,” she answered presently, “I wish you had taken a longer time to consider your feelings before you spoke to me. Have I any right to depend upon your love when I see how quickly you can forget the old and take to the new?”

“Ah!” I exclaimed, bitterly; “I always feared that Conny would come between us.”

“It is not Conny, but your own heart. Can you be faithful?”

“Try me.”

“If I were to tell you I love you, would you abandon me for the first pretty girl you met?”

“Try me,” I groaned.