Meryl was startled and taken aback. She had known perhaps that he had a special liking for her; seen it often in his eyes when he gazed at her. But that he should speak now was a little sudden, and she wished Diana had not left them alone. She tried to meet his eyes, but something a little too ardent in them abashed her, and she looked out into the darkness, nervously twisting and untwisting the thread of her work.
He saw that she was taken aback, and tried somewhat to curb the eager intensity that he felt was unnerving her.
"You are going away up there, and I shall be very anxious about you," he pleaded. "If you would only give me your promise before you go, and let me have the right to follow at once if you are ill or anything, it would make it so much easier."
She stood up, agitated, still gazing wistfully into the night.
"It is very sudden.... I did not know.... I hardly thought.... Have you ... have you ... remembered everything?..."
"That you are English and I am Dutch?... What of it, Meryl?... I may call you Meryl, mayn't I?... Are we not both South Africans?..."
He tried to take her hand and draw her to him, but she shrank away and he did not urge it.
"Have you remembered it long enough?... Thought it out thoroughly?... It all seems somehow so sudden."
"I have known long that I loved you. Does anything else really matter if you can love me in return?"
"Ah!..." she breathed and stopped short.