"But--but it is so sudden!" she stammered.
"Sudden. When I have been eating my heart out ever since I set eyes on your portrait? Oh, my dear, you can't believe that."
"But--but," she made another objection. "There is so much to talk about."
"We can talk all the easier when we understand one another. Surely you can see how devoted I am to you."
"I know that; oh yes, I know that; indeed I do."
"Then--" I held out my hands.
"Mr. Vance?"
"Call me by my name."
"Indeed I can't--oh no--oh no."
"Gertrude!" this time I became masterful and possessed myself of her unwilling hands, "is there anyone else?"