"When will you marry me?" he asked.
She gasped.
"Oh, please," she said, "I don't think I said anything to ... to ... but if ... suppose that I should care for you a little, that does not mean that ..." she broke off.... "Really, I cannot marry you," she said then, with a note of desperation in her voice.
Haverford laughed.
"Why? Give me one good reason, and I will let you go."
She had to laugh too, but she would not yield easily.
She enumerated many reasons.
"The children need me ... it is so soon. I have ever so many things I want to do this year...." Then finally and a little weakly, "I don't want to marry at all."
Rupert looked at her intently.
"There is not one honest reason in all these, and the last is the weakest of the lot," he said coolly. "I really cannot listen to it. You must think of something else...."