The words would not come.
"Hadn't what?" he said.
"If I hadn't liked you—off my own bat!"
"But if you really do, my glorious girl, surely that fixes it? We have nothing to do with anybody else. What does it matter how they take it?"
"It matters to my pride."
"I don't see where your pride comes in."
"Of course you don't; you are not behind the scenes. And I can't make you see. I'm not going to give my own people away to that extent, not even to you. But—I can just picture my mother's face if we went in this very minute and told her we were engaged! She would fall upon both our necks!"
"That wouldn't matter," said Jack stolidly. "That would be all right."
"It would be dreadful—dreadful. I couldn't bear it when I know that yesterday——"
She checked herself firmly.