it."

They sat there in the hushed lobby as remote from the world as though
shipwrecked on a desert island. It was Mary Louise who now looked at
the floor. She could feel Claybrook's eyes upon her. He was waiting
for her to speak, but she could not collect her thoughts. It had come
upon her baldly, without preparation. She scarcely realized the import
of his words.

"Well," he was saying, "think of it now."

Another pause.

She raised her eyes and looked at him squarely in spite of the
trembling in her limbs. His face loomed big and blank before her,
though his voice was very kind.

"I don't know," she heard herself saying. "You--I--it's come on me
rather quickly."

For a moment he made no reply. A street car thundered past and made
the windows rattle.

"Well, you're going to, aren't you? When?"

She could not trust herself to look at him. Again he waited on her
words. She could feel him edging a hit nearer.

"I don't know." The words choked in her throat. She felt cornered,
hemmed in. She could not clear the tumult in her brain. A short time
before she had felt tremendously irritated at him. Now she did not
know how she felt. He was hammering at her with his insistence.

"That can't be," he broke in on her confusion. "I'm not a stranger,
you know. You've known me for over a year and, I think, seen enough of
me to know what sort I am. We are not a couple of kids just out of
school." His voice broke in a ridiculous quaver that somehow tempted
her to laugh hysterically, but he mastered it and went on: "When shall
it be? Next month? I'll buy that big car and we'll drive to
California."

He was groping for her hand.

"I don't know," she said again. "I can't think. Can't we let things
run on as they are?" She ventured a look at him, appealingly.

He drew away just a little and she could see a grim little line
gathering about his mouth and a frown about his eyes.

"I don't see any use in waiting to make up your mind. That's not the
way _I_ do business. What is it?" He went on quietly and firmly, "Yes
or no?" and then more gently, "I think you can see I am willing to do
things for you. It hasn't been one-sided, has it?"

His words crystallized the turbulence in her mind. She was suddenly
sure of herself. She looked up quickly. She could see the little folds
of flesh about his collar, the fine little purplish lines in his
cheeks, could hear his thick breathing, and yet his eyes were looking
steadily and gra