“Well, if you love me, you’ll do as I say,” interrupted David, with an arrogant toss of his handsome head. “Will you, Barbara?”
“I will in everything but—you know, dear, I—I can’t.”
He stared at her in angry silence.
“You appear a soft enough little thing,” he said at last, “but you’re as infernally obstinate as—— Here, give me the ring. I’ll not force it on you.”
She slipped it from her finger in silence, and he took it, restored it to its velvet nest, and dropped the case in his pocket.
“The next time I ask you to wear that ring,” he said, “you’ll either do it, or——”
“David!” cried Barbara faintly. “Please—please don’t be angry. Try to—understand.”
“Try to understand—eh? Well, I’m not so dull as some; but you’ve got me stumped all right. Maybe that’s what you’re trying to do.”
She put out her hands to him pleadingly. But he did not choose to see them.