"You are one of the children," he answered.
As she made an impatient movement he changed his tone.
"I want to talk to you about myself. I'm not exactly a child, but I find I want some one to give me just a little of the attention that you give Betty and Baby."
She grew very hot, and found it rather difficult to breathe.
"I am not satisfied with you only as a ward," Haverford said, and there was an indescribable note of tenderness in his voice, "because there are such difficulties in the way of seeing you. I want you for something closer, better, more helpful. Caroline, will you be my wife?"
She stopped dead, and looked at him with eyes ablaze, then, in a choked voice, she said—
"No!" and then again, "No!" and then she walked on very quickly. He followed her.
"You can't mean that," he said, his tone one of absolute astonishment.
She answered him over her shoulders.
"I do most emphatically." He looked quite dismayed, and the girl broke in hurriedly, "Of course it is very astonishing, I suppose; but call it a caprice, if you like, I have an objection to marry a very rich man. I have an objection," she said, with quivering lips, "to be chosen for a wife just as somebody would choose a carpet, or a piece of furniture."