Another long silence ensued.
It was finally terminated by the brother’s saying:
“You must confess, old man, that you aren’t fixed so as to be able to say one really serious word to any woman—unless it is, ‘Wait.’”
“I know that,” Jack answered; “but I suppose—”
“She’d be taking so many chances,” the friend interrupted. “A man in college is never the real thing. You’d better give it up.”
Then the other whirled about and faced him.
“Give it up, did you say?” he asked almost angrily.
“Yes, that’s what.”
For a minute they looked at one another. Then:
“I shall never give it up,” the lover said very slowly and steadily—“never, until she gives me up.”