.

AN OFFER OF MARRIAGE.
The next afternoon, at half-past four, Tavernake was having tea with Beatrice in the tiny flat which she was sharing with another girl, off Kingsway.

She opened the door to him herself, and though she chattered ceaselessly, it seemed to him that she was by no means at her ease.

She installed him in the only available chair, an absurd little wicker thing many sizes too small for him, and seated herself upon the hearth-rug a few feet away.
"You have soon managed to find me out, Leonard," she remarked.
"Yes," he answered.

"I had to go to the stage doorkeeper for your address." "He hadn't the slightest right to give it you," she declared.
Tavernake shrugged his shoulders.
"I had to have it," he said simply.
"The power of the purse again!" she laughed.