He turned to look at her.  She was all in white like a lily, and otherwise carried out the lily tradition of belonging obviously to the non-toiling-and-spinning species, justifying the arrangement by looking seraphically lovely in the fruits of the loom and labor of the rest of the world.  And after all, sheer loveliness is an end in itself.  Nobody expects a flower to give account of itself and flower-like Carlotta was very, very lovely as she leaned against the granite rock with the valley at her feet.  So Phil Lambert’s eyes told her eloquently.  The valley was not the only thing at Carlotta’s feet.

“I labored under the impression that I did the bringing up myself,” he remarked, his hand closing over hers.  “However, the point is immaterial.  You are here and I am here.  Is there a cosmic reason?”

“There is.”  Carlotta’s voice was dreamy.  She watched a cloud shadow creep over the green-plumed mountain opposite.  “I brought you up here so that you could propose to me suitably and without interruption.”

“Huh!” ejaculated Phil inelegantly, utterly taken by surprise by Carlotta’s announcement.  “Do you mind repeating that?  The altitude seems to have affected my hearing.”

“You heard correctly.  I said I brought you up here to propose to me.”

Phil shrugged.

“Too much ‘As You Like It,’” he observed.  “These Shakespearean heroines are a bad lot.  May I ask just why you want me to propose to you, my dear?  Do you have to collect a certain number of scalps by this particular rare day in June?  Or is it that you think you would enjoy the exquisite pleasure of seeing me writhe and wriggle when you refuse me?”

Phil’s tone was carefully light, and he smiled as he asked the questions, but there was a tight drawn line about his mouth even as he smiled.

“Through bush, through briar,
Through flood, through fire”

he had followed the will o’ the wisp, Carlotta, for two years now, against his better judgment and to the undoing of his peace of mind and heart.  And play days were over for Phil Lambert.  The work-a-day world awaited him, a world where there would be neither space nor time for chasing phantoms, however lovely and alluring.

“Don’t be horrid, Phil.  I’m not like that.  You know I’m not,” denied Carlotta reproachfully.  “I have a surprise for you, Philip, my dear.  I am going to accept you.”

“No!” exclaimed Phil in unfeigned amazement.

“Yes,” declared Carlotta firmly.  “I decided it in church this morning when the man was telling us how fearfully real and earnest life is.  Not that I believe in the real-earnestness.  I don’t.  It’s bosh.  Life was made to be happy in and that is why I made up my mind to marry you.  You might manage to look a little bit pleased.  Anybody would think you were about to keep an appointment with a dentist, instead of having the inestimable privilege of proposing to me with the inside information that I am going to accept you.”