"He was here yesterday," I went on desperately, "and he said he is determined to marry me."
Tom started forward with hot face and clenched fist.
"The blackguard! I wish I'd been here to kick him out of the house! What did you say to him?"
"I told him he had insulted me, and forbade him to come here again without Mr. Saychase to remarry them," I said. Then before Tom's searching look I became so confused he could not help seeing there was more.
"Well?" he demanded.
He was almost peremptory, although he was courteous. Men have such a way in a crisis of instinctively taking the lead that a woman yields to it almost of necessity.
"Tom," I answered, more and more confused, "I must tell you, but I hope you'll understand. I had a frightful time with him. I was ashamed of him and ashamed of myself, and very angry; and when he said he'd make me marry him sometime, I told him"—
"Well?" demanded Tom, his voice much lower than before, but even more compelling.
"I told him," said I, the blood fairly throbbing in my cheeks, "that I should marry you. You've asked me, you know!"
He grew fairly white, but for a moment he did not move. His eyes had a look in them I had never seen, and which made me tremble. It seemed to me that he was fighting down what he wanted to say, and to get control of himself.