this calm
reasoning. That Jasper was of cold temperament she had often feared; yet
there was always the consoling thought that she did not see with perfect
clearness into his nature. Now and then had come a flash, a hint of
possibilities. She had looked forward with trembling eagerness to some
sudden revelation; but it seemed as if he knew no word of the language
which would have called such joyous response from her expectant soul.

'We have talked for a long time,' she said, turning her head as if his
last words were of no significance. 'As Dora is not coming, I think I
will go now.'

She rose, and went towards the chair on which lay her out-of-door
things. At once Jasper stepped to her side.

'You will go without giving me any answer?'

'Answer? To what?'

'Will you be my wife?'

'It is too soon to ask me that.'

'Too soon? Haven't you known for months that I thought of you with far
more than friendliness?'

'How was it possible I should know that? You have explained to me why
you would not let your real feelings be understood.'

The reproach was merited, and not easy to be outfaced. He turned away
for an instant, then with a sudden movement caught both her hands.

'Whatever I have done or said or thought in the past, that is of no
account now. I love you, Marian. I want you to be my wife. I have never
seen any other girl who impressed me as you did from the first. If I had
been weak enough to try to win anyone but you, I should have known that
I had turned aside from the path of my true happiness. Let us forget for
a moment all our circumstances. I hold your hands, and look into your
face, and say that I love you. Whatever answer you give, I love you!'

Till now her heart had only fluttered a little; it was a great part of
her distress that the love she had so long nurtured seemed shrinking
together into some far corner of her being whilst she listened to
the discourses which prefaced Jasper's declaration. She was nervous,
painfully self-conscious, touched with maidenly shame, but could not
abandon herself to that delicious emotion which ought to have been the
fulfilment of all her secret imaginings. Now at length there began a
throbbing in her bosom. Keeping her face averted, her eyes cast down,
she waited for a repetition of the note that was in that last 'I love
you.' She felt a change in the hands that held hers--a warmth, a moist
softness; it caused a shock through her veins.

He was trying to dr