"I think you are quite that already."
"No, I'm not;—but I shall be when I'm alone. What can I say to you, Clara, to make you understand how much I love you? You remember the song, 'For Bonnie Annie Laurie I'd lay me down and dee.' Of course it is all nonsense talking of dying for a woman. What a man has to do is to live for her. But that is my feeling. I'm ready to give you my life. If there was anything to do for you, I'd do it if I could, whatever it was. Do you understand me?"
"Dear Will! Dearest Will!"
"Am I dearest?"
"Are you not sure of it?"
"But I like you to tell me so. I like to feel that you are not ashamed to own it. You ought to say it a few times to me, as I have said it so very often to you."
"You'll hear enough of it before you've done with me."
"I shall never have heard enough of it. Oh, Heavens, only think, when I was coming down in the train last night I was in such a bad way."
"And are you in a good way now?"
"Yes; in a very good way. I shall crow over Mary so when I get home."