"But he was. He—cares. And now he'll have to know about—us."
"But he wasn't—he doesn't. You don't understand, Keith. He—he never thought of—of proposing to me. I know he didn't."
"Then why—what—Dorothy, what do you mean by all this?"
"Why, it's just that—that is—I—oh, Keith, Keith, why will you make me tell you?" she cried between hysterical little laughs and sobs. "And yet—I'd have to tell you, of course. I—I knew you were there on the porch, and—and I knew you'd hear—what I said. And so, to make you understand—oh, Keith, it was awful, but I—I pretended that——"
"You—darling!" breathed an impassioned voice in her ear. "Oh, how I love you, love you—for that!"
"Oh, but, Keith, it really was awful of me," she cried, blushing and laughing, as she emerged from his embrace. "Susan told me to defy the 'properties' and—and I did it."
"Susan!"
She nodded.
"That's how I knew—for sure—that you cared."
"And so I owe it all—even my—er—proposal of marriage, to Susan," he bantered mischievously.