"The night we took the gondola ride."
"Days since, then. You are a wonder, Jack. Are you going to stay here and live it down?"
"I am going to stay here if you will let me."
"Let you? It is your home. Oh Jack, I am afraid of your tone. You haven't given up. I must tell you, though, that Mildred would be honest, uncompromisingly honest, in a serious matter like that. She is not a coquette."
"I know it."
"If she doesn't love you, you do not want her."
"I don't know whether she loves me or not, and I don't believe she knows any better."
As his handsome, frank eyes looked up at her, Clover's heart swelled with the approval and admiration she felt.
"We must relax to it," she said involuntarily.
"Or brace up to it," he replied, with his brilliant smile; "but it is too late now for the Petruchio act, Clover. I have literally and figuratively given myself away."