“All right,” he agreed, and taking her arm and tucking her shoulder comfortably close to him, he walked easily with her back to the library. Arrived there, he seated her on her favourite chair, and drew up another one squarely in front of her.
“I’m going to shock you to death,” he told her. “I’m going to propose seriously to you.”
Some laughing retort was on her lips, but she caught a look in his eyes which suddenly stopped her.
“I am very much in earnest about it, Gail,” and his voice bore the stamp of deep sincerity. “I love you. I want you to be my wife.”
“Dick,” protested Gail, and it was she who reached out and placed her hand in his. The action was too confidingly frank for him to mistake it.
“I was afraid you’d think that way about it,” he said, his voice full of a pain of which they neither one had believed him capable. “This is the first time I ever proposed, except in fun, and I want to make you take me seriously. Gail, I’ve said so many pretty things to you, that now, when I am in such desperate earnest, there’s nothing left but just to try to tell you how much I love you; how much I want you!” He stopped, and, holding her hand, patting it gently with unconscious tenderness, he gazed earnestly into her eyes. His own were entirely without that burning glow which he had, for so long, bestowed on all the young and beautiful. They were almost sombre now, and in their depth was an humble wistfulness which made Gail’s heart flow out to him.
“I can’t, Dick,” she told him, smiling affectionately at him. “You’re the dearest boy in the world, and I want you for my friend as long as we live; for my very dear friend!”
He studied her in silence for a moment, and then he put his hands on her cheeks, and drew her gently towards him. Still smiling into his eyes, she held up her lips, and he kissed her.
“I’d like to say something jolly before I go,” he said as he rose; “but I can’t seem to think of it.”
Gail laughed, but there was a trace of moisture in her eyes as she took his arm.