"No—at least not in connection with—no."
Someone had told her that blushing could be prevented by a sharp pinch in the back of the neck. It was a lie. She felt as if she were being painted in a stinging crimson paint, while Dacer continued to regard her with a cold, impassive stare. He rose and shut the door between the two offices.
"Am I to understand," he said, "that you have never considered the possibility of marriage?"
She shook her head. She felt as if she were drowning.
"Then consider it now," he said, and took her up in his arms, her toes dangling inches from the floor.
Miss Waverley entered again. The apartment was well built and the doors opened without any preliminary creaking.
"Doctor Burroughs on the telephone, doctor," she said.
There was nothing to do but to let Lita slide to her feet and to take up the telephone from the desk. It was all very well for him, with his attention immediately occupied; but Lita was left alone to encounter the blank self-control of Miss Waverley's expression as she again shut the door behind her. Dacer was giving his chief an account of a professional visit, and was about to receive instructions. Lita heard him say, "Yes, I'll hold the wire."
In the pause that followed, Lita whispered, pointing toward the door, "She saw!"
"Unless stricken with blindness."