Page:The Private Life, Lord Beaupré, The Visits (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1893).djvu/157

"That if we were drowning, you'd be the very first to jump in. And we may fall overboard yet!" Fidgeting there, with his hands in his pockets, Lord Beaupré gave a laugh at this, but assured her that there was nothing in the world for which they mightn't count upon him. None the less she just permitted herself another warning, a warning, it is true, that was in his own interest, a reminder of a peril that he ought beforehand to look in the face. Wasn't there always the chance—just the bare chance—that a girl in Mary's position would, in the event, decline to let him off, decline to release him even on the day he should wish to marry? She wasn't speaking of Mary, but there were, of course, girls who would play him that trick. Guy Firminger considered this contingency; then he declared that it wasn't a question of "girls," it was simply a question of dear old Mary! If she should wish to hold him, so much the better; he would do anything in the world that she wanted. "Don't let us dwell on such vulgarities; but I had it on my conscience!" Mrs. Gosselin wound up.