"Don't be too severe on me," he said—quite humbly, considering all things.
And he stretched out his hand, as if to take hers.
But she drew it back, smiling ever so faintly.
"Do you think I don't know what the obstacles are?" she said. "I will tell you."
"My affection was strong enough to sweep them away," he said, "or I should not be here."
She smiled slightly again.
"I know all about them, as well as you do," she said. "I rather laughed at them at first, but I don't now. I suppose I'm 'impressed by their seriousness,' as aunt Belinda says. I suppose they are pretty serious—to you."
"Nothing would be so serious to me as that you should let them interfere with my happiness," he answered, thrown back upon himself, and bewildered by her logical manner. "Let us forget them. I was a fool to speak as I did. Won't you answer my question?"
She paused a second, and then answered,—
"You didn't expect to ask me to marry you," she said. "And I didn't expect you to"—