with
wise people? I don't, you know." she paused, frowning, not quite sure
where this thought was going to lead her.

"They're the best chaps on earth," he murmured. "I c-could have b-been
like them."

"But what is it makes them wise and fine? It's--I think--because they
get rid of themselves, and let God shine through them to other people."

He turned impatiently. She caught his hot, damp, dirty hand in hers.

"Louis, I don't know very much. I've proved I can't hold you very well
already, but I care an awful lot. Louis--how would it be if you threw it
all on to me for a while till either you believe in God or in yourself?
And I've a sort of belief that, whichever you believe in first, you'll
believe in the other automatically--I'm not a bit clever, Louis. I never
was. Always I get puzzled, always I realize how utterly unlearned I am.
Always father called me an idiot and threw things at me for it. But in
spite of being a duffer I'm sure I can help you."

"You could if you were with me every minute. I'd rather be with you than
most people. But the minute I'm away from you I get dragged."

"Well, why shouldn't I stop with you the whole time, never leave you a
minute? Let's be married, and then I could."

She looked at him anxiously. There was not a glimmer of shyness or
excitement about her. She was still in her dream world; she knew that
marriage would keep them together always. So she suggested marriage. She
was not, yet, consciously in love.

He stared at her, stammered a little as he tried to speak and then,
suddenly sobered, snatched at her hand.

"Do you mean it, knowing what I am? I'm an awful waster,
Marcella--there's nothing on earth I can do for a living."

She frowned a little.

"But that's nothing to do with it. We'll find some way of living. You
know that. We'd have to if we were not married, wouldn't we? And stop
all this about being a waster. You're not anything of the sort. You're
not anything but what you're going to be."

"And you really, really, won't go back on it? I make so many promises
and break them. I can't believe other people much."

"Of course I won't go back on it. I want to stay with you. I never want
to be with anyone else at all on earth."

"But why?" he asked, humble for the first time in his life.

"I haven't the slightest idea. You seem very clever to me. That's one
thing. And--and the way you _depend_. Oh dear, I feel I've got to kidnap
both you and Jimmy and run away