veral of the most mawkish effusions,
and insisting on her playing and singing them to him. As the poor girl,
who felt that out of common politeness she could not refuse, toiled
wearily through this martyrdom, writhing with secret disgust at every
line, Hunt, lolling in an easy-chair behind her, was generally indulging
in a series of horrible grimaces and convulsions of silent laughter,
which sometimes left tears in his eyes,--to convince Annie, when she
turned around to him, that his sentiment was at least genuine if vulgar.
Had she happened on one of these occasions to turn a moment before she
did, the resulting tableau would have been worth seeing.

Hunt had determined to both crown and crucially test the triumph of
Potts's cure in Annie's case by formally offering himself to her. He
calculated of course that she was now certain to reject him, and that
was a satisfaction which he thought he fairly owed her. She would feel
better for it, he argued, and be more absolutely sure not to regard
herself as in any sense jilted, and that would make his conscience
clearer. Yes, she should certainly have his scalp to hang at her girdle,
for he believed, as many do, that next to having a man's heart a woman
enjoys having his scalp, while many prefer it. Six weeks ago he would
have been horrified at the audacity of the idea. His utmost ambition
then was to break a little the force of her disappointment at his
departure. But the unexpected fortune that had attended his efforts had
advanced his standard of success, until nothing would now satisfy him
but to pop the question and be refused.

And still, as the day approached which he had set for the desperate
venture, he began to get very nervous. He thought he had a sure thing if
ever a fellow had, but women were so cursedly unaccountable. Supposing
she should take it into her head to accept him! No logic could take
account of a woman's whimsies. Then what a pretty fix he would have got
himself into, just by a foolhardy freak! But there was a strain of Norse
blood in Hunt, and in spite of occasional touches of ague, the risk of
the scheme had in itself a certain fascination for him. And yet he
could n't help wishing he had carried out a dozen desperate devices for
disgusting her with him, which at the time had seemed to him too gross
to be safe from suspicion.

The trouble was that since he loved her no more he had lost the insight
which love only gives into the feelings of another