Paliser lit a cigarette and said: "You made no reply to that statement of mine."
She stared. "What statement?"
"About saving your life."
"And ruining my reputation?"
"Well, life comes first. I said you would have to marry me to pay for it. Will you?"
Cassy lowered the napkin. He was talking in jest she knew, or thought she knew, but the subject was not to her taste, though if he had been serious she would have disliked it still more. She wanted to give it to him, but no fitting insolence occurred to her and she turned to the window before which two Japanese were passing, with the air, certainly feigned, which these Asiatics display, of being hilarious and naïf.
"Will you?" he repeated.
"Will I what?"
"Marry me?"
Perhaps he did mean it, she thought. He was cheeky enough for anything. But now he was prodding her. "Say yes. Say to-morrow; say to-day."