er throat, as summoning up all her resolution she went on:

'It would be for you I would have it built, Leonard!' The man sat up
quickly.

'For me?' he asked in a sort of wonderment.

'Yes, Leonard, for you and me!' She turned away; her blushes so overcame
her that she could not look at him. When she faced round again he was
standing up, his back towards her.

She stood up also. He was silent for a while; so long that the silence
became intolerable, and she spoke:

'Leonard, I am waiting!' He turned round and said slowly, the absence of
all emotion from his face chilling her till her face blanched:

'I don't think I would worry about it!'

Stephen Norman was plucky, and when she was face to face with any
difficulty she was all herself. Leonard did not look pleasant; his face
was hard and there was just a suspicion of anger. Strangely enough, this
last made the next step easier to the girl; she said slowly:

'All right! I think I understand!'

He turned from her and stood looking out on the distant prospect. Then
she felt that the blow which she had all along secretly feared had fallen
on her. But her pride as well as her obstinacy now rebelled. She would
not accept a silent answer. There must be no doubt left to torture her
afterwards. She would take care that there was no mistake. Schooling
herself to her task, and pressing one hand for a moment to her side as
though to repress the beating of her heart, she came behind him and
touched him tenderly on the arm.

'Leonard,' she said softly, 'are you sure there is no mistake? Do you
not see that I am asking you,' she intended to say 'to be my husband,'
but she could not utter the words, they seemed to stick in her mouth, so
she finished the sentence: 'that I be your wife?'

The moment the words were spoken--the bare, hard, naked, shameless
words--the revulsion came. As a lightning flash shows up the blackness
of the night the appalling truth of what she had done was forced upon
her. The blood rushed to her head till cheeks and shoulders and neck
seemed to burn. Covering her face with her hands she sank back on the
seat crying silently bitter tears that seemed to scald her eyes and her
cheeks as they ran.

Leonard was angry. When it began to dawn upon him what was the purpose
of Stephen's speech, he had been shocked. Young men are so easily
shocked by breaches of convention made by women they respect! And his
pride was hurt. Why should he