"Because what?"
No answer again.
"You aren't—promised to any one else?" For the first time a shadow of uneasy doubt crossed his face.
She shook her head.
"Oh, no."
"Then what is it?"
Her eyes, frightened and pleading, searched his face. There was a tense moment of indecision. Then in a tragic burst it came.
"Maybe you think I'd—marry you, and be your wife, and have all your folks look down on me!"
"Look down on you?"
"Yes, because I'm not so swell and grand as they are. I'm only—"