A wintry smile gleamed on the girl's white face. "I should have minded a great deal had you really wished to marry me."
"Then why ask me?" demanded Basil, much relieved, but still confused.
"To set my father's mind at rest," replied Mara quietly, and as self-possessed as her cousin was disturbed. "Now that you have declined, I can tell him!" and she flitted towards the door.
"But, Mara!" Basil rose and ran across the room to catch her arm. "How can you be certain that I mean what I say?"
She turned on him with an amazed look. "You think that I am a child, Basil, but I am not. I have eyes and ears and common-sense. You will marry Patricia, will you not?"
Young Dane grew redder than ever. "I--I--have said nothing to her," he stammered nervously. "She--she doesn't know that I--that I----"
Mara's scornful laughter stopped his further speech, and she became quite friendly for so bloodless a person. "You silly boy!" she cried, ruffling what hair the barber had left him. "Patricia knows."
"But how can she?"
"Because she is a woman," said Mara impatiently. "Women are not like men, and don't require everything to be put into words. I saw from the moment you met Patricia that you loved her. I'm glad; I'm glad," she ended, with conviction, "as I don't want to marry you or anyone else."
Basil, with lover-like selfishness, did not pay attention to the end of her speech, but to the earlier part. "If you saw, then Miss Carrol must have seen."