"Stop! Please stop," she said.
I stopped, and looked at her coldly.
For a moment we stood regarding each other in silence, for it seemed that, having detained me, she could think of nothing more to say. But suddenly she broke out, with a fierce little stamp of the foot.
"Oh! Sometimes I can understand why it was that Philip liked to torture the Dutch."
It was all I could do not to burst out laughing. But it would have spoiled everything for me if I had laughed.
"You have tortured the Dutch," said I. "But now it's finished. The Dutch have tired of the torture."
"Oh, you're tired? Then you had better go, I suppose. Why are you waiting?"
"You stopped me for something. What was it?"
"I—hardly know. It was only—I was going to propose——"
"You were going to propose?"