"No, for your sake," he repeated. "Oh, Nan, you must know that I would rather please you than any one else in the world!"
"Oh, Jack," I exclaimed in dismay, "do please stop talking in that absurd way!"
"Absurd!" he repeated in a tone which made me know I had hurt him. "Is it absurd to love you, Nan? Oh, you must know how I love you! I could not speak of it before; but, now that I am all right for the Army, I want you to promise that you will be my wife—some time. I know it can't be yet."
I could have laughed at the audacity with which he made the proposal, had I not seen that it was no laughing matter with him. He seemed to think I was already won, and to expect me to pledge myself to him forthwith. And all the while, eager and anxious as he was, he looked such a boy!
"It can never be," I said decisively. "You must never speak of this again, Jack. It is quite impossible. What can have made you think of such a thing?"
"Why, I have always thought of it," he said, "at least that is, since you came to stay at 'Gay Bowers.'"
"That is only six months ago," I remarked. "So now you must please banish the idea from your mind. It could never be."
"Why not, Nan?" he asked wistfully. "Do you dislike me so much?"
"Jack, how silly you are! What will you ask next? Have we not been good chums? But our marrying is quite out of the question. It vexes me that you should speak of it. For one thing you are younger than I am, and altogether too young to know your mind on this subject."
"Thank you, Nan," he retorted; "I assure you I know my own mind perfectly. I am only six months younger than you, and you seem to have no doubt of the soundness of your opinion. It is not such a great difference I don't see that it matters in the least."