The door-handle was turned in an ostentatiously preliminary way, and then Laurette came in.
'Would you mind keeping away for a little longer, Larry?' said her brother; on which Laurette laughed in a knowing way, bowed, and disappeared.
'Oh! how could you, Ted? Laurette will imagine all sorts of absurdities.'
'She will imagine that we are getting engaged; and that's what's going to happen, Stella. You never could throw me off after all these years. You know that I love you with my whole heart and soul, don't you?'
'I believe that you love me a great deal more than I deserve. But try and put yourself in my place; think how different the thought of marrying me would be if you did not love me.'
'It's no use my trying to think that; I've loved you ever since I was that high,' said Ted, holding his hand four feet from the ground.
'Well, it goes to my heart to think of grieving you; but——'
'Don't, Stella—don't say it. You can't know what a God-forsaken good-for-nothing I'd be if you took away all hope from me. Let's stay as we are and think over it—get used to the thought that you are to be my wife.'
'Don't plead with me so much—it worries me. I feel as if I must give way; and that would be fatal. Do not interrupt me. You don't understand what a hatefully cold-hearted creature I feel when I get indifferent to people.'
'But you are not indifferent to me—not quite?'