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Rh It’s nearly twelve o’clock, and we’ve walked too far as it is.”

Katharine laughed and walked on so quickly that both Rodney and the taxi-cab had to increase their pace to keep up with her.

“Now, William,” she said, “if people see me racing along the Embankment like this they will talk. You had far better say good night, if you don’t want people to talk.”

At this William beckoned, with a despotic gesture, to the cab with one hand, and with the other he brought Katharine to a standstill.

“Don’t let the man see us struggling, for God’s sake!” he murmured. Katharine stood for a moment quite still.

“There’s more of the old maid in you than the poet,” she observed briefly.

William shut the door sharply, gave the address to the driver, and turned away, lifting his hat punctiliously high in farewell to the invisible lady.

He looked back after the cab twice, suspiciously, half expecting that she would stop it and dismount; but it bore her swiftly on, and was soon out of sight. William felt in the mood for a short soliloquy of indignation, for Katharine had contrived to exasperate him in more ways than one.

“Of all the unreasonable, inconsiderate creatures I’ve ever known, she’s the worst!” he exclaimed to himself, striding back along the Embankment. “Heaven forbid that I should ever make a fool of myself with her again. Why, I’d sooner marry the daughter of my landlady than Katharine Hilbery! She’d leave me not a moment’s peace—and she’d never understand me—never, never, never!”

Uttered aloud and with vehemence so that the stars of Heaven might hear, for there was no human being at