"Will that do? I want you to be comfortable and happy. Five different girls have asked me to the dance to-night. Four of them would have been miserable if I had confined my attentions to one, and the whole five would have been indignant if I had distributed them impartially. And you are ungrateful."
Something in his tone touched me. After a pause he said, "And you have them all. Ruth, I want you to love me with your whole soul and body. I want you to marry me."
"There is Miss Campbell and Miss Conover. Think how much finer looking they are. Oh, I can't think why you should want to marry me."
"Well, queer as it may seem, and indifferent as you are now, there are some other points. I want you. I've resolved to win you, and shall do my best. And your father needs my assistance, may for some time to come. Can't we three pull together? You are not old enough to have loved any one else, you don't know anything about love, you little white blossom, so I shall teach you. Your father has consented."
I felt as if a net was drawn around me. Did I want to escape and leave father to suffer all sorts of anxieties? Here was some one strong enough, willing enough to shoulder them.
"Oh, I don't know—I don't know!"
"You don't love Ben," he declared fiercely. "It would be folly to wait all those years."
"Oh, no, no," I cried.
"And mother had a half hope Homer would wait for you. You see I know the family plans. Chris is too young even for you to wait."
There was another. But it might be years before we should see him. And he would have changed in all that grand life. He was learning so much that we common people would seem beneath him.