“You—must make me—trust you,” she murmured, after a difficult silence. “I don’t know why—I can’t say—yes. But—I can’t—yet.”
“I know,” he said roughly. “You’re half in love with the other man. Damn him!”
He sprang to his feet, upsetting his chair.
“No—no!” she denied breathlessly. “It isn’t that. I refused him because”—her voice trailed off in a whisper—“I remembered you, David.”
He caught her in his arms with a triumphant laugh.
“You can’t escape me now, after that admission,” he told her. “You shall marry me, sweetheart; no one shall prevent it.”
She yielded to his eyes, his arms, his eager lips with a sense of mingled relief and terror.
“We must not speak of it, David,” she warned him, “nor—take too much for granted, till after we have found out about the contract. We may have to wait till——”
“Oh, damn the contract!” cried David exuberantly. “I’ll find that fellow Smith and make him tell me all he knows. I’ll fix it up, sweetheart; you’ll see!”