Page:Love Insurance - Earl Biggers (1914).djvu/74

Rh strokes. She should be his. She must be. Before him life stretched, glorious, with her at his side—

"I think I will tell you," the girl was saying. "This is to be the most important luncheon of my life because—"

"Yes?" smiled Mr. Minot

"Because it is the one at which I am going to announce my engagement!"

Minot's heart stopped beating. A hundred castles in Spain came tumbling about his ears, and the roar of their falling deafened him. He put out his hand blindly to open the door, for he realized that the car had come to a stop.

"Let me help you, please," he said dully.

And even as he spoke a horrible possibility swept into his heart and overwhelmed him.

"I—I beg your pardon," he stammered, "but would you mind telling me one thing?"

"Of course not. But I really must fly—"

"The name of—the happy man."

"Why—Allan, Lord Harrowby. Thank you so much—and good-by."

She was gone now—gone amid the palms of