game that offers me the least chance--ze waiting game!"

"I believe that's true," said Florence.

"Were I to act ze distracted lover, you would laugh in my face,"
he went on earnestly. "Were I to propose and be refused, my pride
would not let me--my instinct as gentleman would not let me--go
trailing after you with my long face. The idyll would be over. I
would go!"

"There are times when I think a heap of you," said Florence
encouragingly.

"Oh, I know so well how it would be," he continued. "A week of
doubt--of fever; a rain of little notes; and then with your good
clear honest Far Vest sense you would say: No, mon cher, it is
eempossible!"

"Yes, I suppose I would," said Florence.

"I would rather be your friend all my life," said the count, "than
to be merely one of the rejected. I have no ambition to place my
name on that already great list. I have never yet asked a woman to
marry me, and when I do I care not for the expectation of being
refused!"

"You are like all Europeans," said Florence, "you believe in a
sure thing."

"My heart is not on my sleeve," he returned, "and I value it too