"I think so; you shall judge. For a long while I've been very fond of you."
His ardent glance repelled her. She resented it and this gave her courage.
"I wonder what you mean by that?" she asked coldly.
The man failed to understand her. Love was not a complex thing to him.
"It ought to be pretty simple. You're the girl I mean to marry; I set my heart on it some time ago."
"Mean to marry? You're not diffident."
Mappin laughed and his amusement filled her with repulsion. She was not encouraging, he thought; but he had not expected her to be so.
"No," he replied, "I'm not. Bashfulness doesn't pay, and I haven't had time to study saying pretty things. I want you—there it is."
"It's a pity you didn't tell me this earlier. It might have saved you some disappointment," said Geraldine.
She was angry and alarmed, but keenly interested. She had not expected that her first offer would take this abrupt form; but there was no doubting the strong primitive passion in the man. It was a force to be reckoned with; one could not treat it with indifference. He looked big and clumsy as he stood with his eyes fixed on her, but his face and pose suggested power.