“But——”
“But you need not be at all alarmed. I shall find some post, perhaps as clerk—I am clever at figures—perhaps as secretary. Mr. Blunt, the rector, will give me a character. I have only myself to please—no one’s wishes to consult.”
As I spoke, he had been fingering the little ornaments on the chimney-piece, with his head half turned away. Then he suddenly confronted me, and said—
“Miss Hayes, I hope what I am going to say will not startle you very much.”
I became cold all over, and my heart beat fast. Was he going to offer me money? I laid down my work to conceal my trembling hands, and looked up in his face.
“You will make me very happy if you will marry me.”
I sat for a moment speechless; then I also rose to my feet, and said in a low voice—I could not get it to sound, somehow—
“You cannot be in earnest, Mr. Somers.”
“I am in earnest—in deadly earnest, Miss Hayes.”