Marcus Durant had suggested to Sally Sheppard that she become “engaged” to him, in an effort to put his beloved grandmother’s mind at rest. It would be purely a temporary measure, he explained, with no real feelings on either side. With anyone but Marcus, Sally would have entered into the spirit of the thing, treated it all as a joke. But, far too late, she realized she had fallen in love with him too hard to take the affair anything but seriously.