Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/27

 could mistake you for anything but a lady. That is a protection anywhere."

Nan smiled her appreciation.

"Nor could you the less readily be mistaken for anything but a gentleman."

He laughed in turn.

"Since we think so highly of each other, Nan, why is it that—well, that you insist upon taking this trip alone? I'm ready to go in any capacity from courier to a mere husband."

"I've tried to explain that to the family," said Nan soberly, "but they think I am perfectly silly and won't see my point of view at all. It's just that I want to be sure of myself, and I know you so well and like you so much that I'm not sure the feeling I have for you isn't only friendship. I want to know another kind of men from those I have met in my comparatively brief social experience, so that when I finally marry, the man will be the man I have chosen intelligently from among any other men who may have thought well enough of me to ask me to marry them. I like an active man, a man who is doing something in the world, making his