“Shall I tell you what has been happening to me to-night?”

“If you really wish me to know,” said Herne.

She jerked her shoulder with a hint of impatience.

“I feel as if I must tell someone, and you are as safe, as any one I know.  I have danced with six men so far, and out of those six three have asked me to marry them.  It’s been almost like a conspiracy, as if they were doing it for a wager.  Only, two of them were so horribly in earnest that it couldn’t have been that.  Major Herne, why can’t people be reasonable?”

“Heaven knows!” said Herne.

She gave him a quick smile.

“If I get another proposal to-night I shall have hysterics.  But I know I am safe with you.”

Herne was silent.

Betty gave a little shiver.

“You think me very horrid to have told you?”

“No,” he answered deliberately, “I don’t.  I think that you were extraordinarily wise.”

She laughed with a touch of wistfulness.

“I have a feeling that if I quite understood what you meant, I shouldn’t regard that as a compliment.”

“Very likely not.”  Herne’s dark face brooded over the distant water.  He did not so much as glance at the girl beside him, though her eyes were studying him quite frankly.

“Why are you so painfully discreet?” she said suddenly.  “Don’t you know that I want you to give me advice?”

“Which you won’t take,” said Herne.

“I don’t know.  I might.  I quite well might.  Anyhow, I should be grateful.”

He rested one foot on the battlement, still not looking at her.

“If you took my advice,” he said, “you would marry.”

“Marry!” she said with a quick flush.  “Why?  Why should I?”

“You know why,” said Herne.

“Really I don’t.  I am quite happy as I am.”

“Quite?” he said.

She began to tap her fingers against the stonework.  There was something of nervousness in the action.

“I couldn’t possibly marry any one of the men who proposed to me to-night,” she said.

“There are other men,” said Herne.

“Yes, I know, but—­” She threw out her arms suddenly with a gesture that had in it something passionate.  “Oh, if only I were a man myself!” she said.  “How I wish I were!”

“Why?” said Herne.

She answered him instantly, her voice not wholly steady.

“I want to travel.  I want to explore.  I want to go to the very heart of the world, and—­and learn its secrets.”

Herne turned his head very deliberately and looked at her.

“And then?” he said.

Half defiantly her eyes met his.

“I would find Bobby Duncannon,” she said, “and bring him back.”

Herne stood up slowly.

“I thought that was it,” he said.

“And why shouldn’t it be?” said Betty.  “I have known him for a long time now.  Wouldn’t you do as much for a pal?”