"Not so much in a hurry, Mary, as anxious to know your answer."
"I'd much rather you were not so pressing," she replied.
"But you promised to let me have your reply to my question in a week."
"No! I only promised to see what I could do in that period, when you urged that a month was too long a time to take for consideration. There are circumstances which alter cases, you know."
"Do such circumstances exist in my case?" he asked.
"Yes, I think they do," she replied, a little nervous tremor visible in her tone.
"I'm sorry if it is so."
"Besides, I'm not at all anxious to give up my liberty," she added laughingly.
"I don't ask you to be my slave, Mary, but my wife," he replied with some emphasis.
"And in too many instances there is little difference between the two states."