“He means that I shan’t be asked to dinner any more.”

“Why? You have done nothing.”

“No; but I intend to do something.”

“What’s that?”

Dan glanced at the closed door and seeing that there was no immediate chance of butler or footmen entering took her in his arms. “Marry you,” he whispered between two kisses.

“There’s no intention about that,” pouted the girl; “we have settled that ever so long ago.”

“So your father suspects, and for that reason he is warning Mrs. Bolstreath.”

“Warning the dragon,” said Miss Moon, who used the term quite in an affectionate way, “why, the dragon is on our side.”

“I dare say your father guesses as much. For that reason I’ll stake my life that he is telling her at this moment she must never let us be together alone after this evening. After all, my dear, I don’t see why you should look at me in such a puzzled way. You know well enough that Sir Charles wants you to marry Curberry.”

“Marry Lord Curberry,” cried Lillian, her pale skin colouring a deep rose hue; “why I told Dad I wouldn’t do that.”

“Did you tell Dad that you loved me?”

“No. There’s no need to,” said the girl promptly.

Dan coughed drily. “I quite agree with you,” he said rising, “there’s no need to, since every time I look at you, I give myself away. But you surely understand, darling, that as I haven’t a title and I haven’t money I can’t have you. Hothouse grapes are for the rich and not for a poor devil like me.”

“You might find a prettier simile,” laughed Lillian, not at all discomposed, although she now thoroughly understood the meaning of her father’s abrupt departure with Mrs. Bolstreath. Then she rose and took Dan by the lapels of his coat, upon which he promptly linked her to himself by placing both arms round her waist. “Dearest,” she said earnestly, “I shall marry you and you only. We have been brought up more or less together, and we have always loved one another. Dad was your guardian: you have five hundred a year of your own, and if we marry Dad can give us plenty, and—”

“I know all that,” interrupted Halliday, placing her arms round his neck, “and it is just because Sir Charles knows also, that he will never consent to our marriage. I guessed what was in the wind weeks ago, darling heart, and every day I have been expecting what has occurred to-night. For that reason, I have come here as often as possible and have arranged for you and the dragon to go to the theatre to-night. But, believe me, Lillian, it will be for the last time. To-morrow I shall receive a note saying that I am to stay away from Lord Curberry’s bride.”

“I’m not his bride and I never shall be!” stamped Lillian, and the tears came into her pretty eyes, whereupon Dan, as a loyal lover, wiped them away with his pocket-handkerchief tenderly, “and—and—” she faltered.

“And—and—” he mocked, knowing her requirements, which led him to console her with a long and lingering kiss. “Oh!” he sighed and Lillian, nestling in his arms, echoed the sigh. The moment of perfect understanding and perfect love held them until the sudden opening of the door placed Dan on one side of the table and Lillian on the other.

“It won’t do, my dears,” said the new-comer, who was none other than Mrs. Bolstreath, flaming with wrath, but not, as the lovers found later, at them. “I know quite well that Dan hasn’t wasted his time in this league-divided wooing.”

“We thought that one of the servants—” began the young man, when Mrs. Bolstreath interrupted.

“Well, and am I not one of the servants? Sir Charles has reminded me of the fact three times with information that I am not worth my salt, much less the good table he keeps.”

“Oh! Bolly dear,” and Lillian ran to the stout chaperon to embrace her with many kisses, “was Dad nasty?”

“He wasn’t agreeable,” assented Mrs. Bolstreath, fanning herself with her handkerchief, for the interview had heated her. “You can’t expect him to be, my sweet, when his daughter loves a pauper.”

“Thank you,” murmured Dan bowing, “but don’t you think it is time we went to the theatre, Bolly dear.”

“You must not be so familiar, young man,” said the chaperon, broadly smiling at the dark handsome face. “Sir Charles wants Lillian to marry—”

“Then I shan’t!” Lillian stamped again. “I hate Lord Curberry.”

“And you love Dan!”

“Don’t be so familiar, young woman,” said Halliday, in a joking way, “unless you are on our side, that is.”

“If I were not on your side,” rejoined Mrs. Bolstreath, majestically, “I should be the very dragon Lillian calls me. After all, Dan, you are poor.”

“Poor, but honest.”

“Worse and worse.