"Please! Please!" I protested.  "This is madness!"

"Please! Please!" I protested.  "This is madness!"

"It is delicious madness," he said softly.

"It is delicious madness," he said softly.

In the moonlight I could see the heavy, colourless heads of flowers; the scent of them, sweet and strange and all different, seemed to wave over us for a minute as we passed.

In the moonlight I could see the heavy, colourless heads of flowers; the scent of them, sweet and strange and all different, seemed to wave over us for a minute as we passed.

"They'll be on the veranda," he said. "We'll go round."

"They'll be on the veranda," he said. "We'll go round."

"You're not going in!" I said desperately.

"You're not going in!" I said desperately.

He stopped and looked down at me.

He stopped and looked down at me.

"In six weeks I go to the front with my draft," he said.  "And I hope to be killed. To-night has placed us both in the most extraordinary position. It's practically impossible for us, at the moment, to extricate ourselves. It just happens that fate has played into my hands in the rummiest way. I don't want to extricate myself. Six weeks is a very short time. I'm awfully rich. I'll give you a topping time, a time you'll remember all your life—if you won't try to extricate yourself for six weeks."

"In six weeks I go to the front with my draft," he said.  "And I hope to be killed. To-night has placed us both in the most extraordinary position. It's practically impossible for us, at the moment, to extricate ourselves. It just happens that fate has played into my hands in the rummiest way. I don't want to extricate myself. Six weeks is a very short time. I'm awfully rich. I'll give you a topping time, a time you'll remember all your life—if you won't try to extricate yourself for six weeks."

"Pretend to be engaged to you?"

"Pretend to be engaged to you?"

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