“What is the matter, Oliver?”
“Matter?”
“Yes. What have I done?”
“Done?”
“Don’t be stupid. Have I offended you? Why haven’t you been up to see me?”
He decided to be quite frank about it. “I guess you know the reason.”
“I don’t know of any reason why you shouldn’t come to see me, unless it’s because you don’t care to.”
“See here, Jane, we’ve always been pals. I know you like me just as much as you ever did, and I’d jump off of that building over there head first for your sake. I don’t know exactly how things stand with you and Lansing. I don’t think you are engaged to be married. If that were the case, I’m sure you would have told me so, but—”
“We are not engaged to be married,” she said quietly.
“I’m not going to ask whether you are in love with him. It’s none of my business. It’s pretty generally understood that he is in love with you. Let me finish. I will admit I’ve been making a few inquiries. I have found out that up to the time he came upon the field you had any number of young men calling on you—And I’ll bet my head they were all in love with you. According to gossip, he seems to have the inside track—so much so, in fact, that all of the others have dropped out of the running. You see hardly any one now but Lansing. And so, while I’m not a suitor, it’s only fair and square of me to keep out of the—”