He was more stirred than he had thought possible. He was becoming almost eager.
"But," asked Ingeborg, exploring this new interesting situation, "why do you want to?"
"Want to marry you?"
"Yes."
"Because," said Herr Dremmel, immensely prompt, "I have had the extreme good fortune to fall in love with you."
Again she looked pleased.
"And I do not ask you," he went on, "to love me, or whether you do love me. It would be presumption on my part, and not, if you did, very modest on yours. That is the difference between a man and a woman. He loves before marriage, and she does not love till after."
"Oh?" said Ingeborg, interested. "And what does he—"
"The woman," continued Herr Dremmel, "feels affection and esteem before marriage, and the man feels affection and esteem after."
"Oh," said Ingeborg, reflecting. She began to tear up tufts of grass. "It seems—chilly," she said.