Laura thought not. The end of the terrace was not lighted. She and Jimmy were in the gloom and the others were not very dull.
"Well?" she said.
"I wanted to ask if you will marry me?"
For a few moments Laura said nothing and Jimmy noted that her pose was very quiet. Then she looked up.
"You are very young, Jimmy."
"I'm not younger than you. Besides, I don't see what my youth has to do with it."
"Your youth is a drawback," said Laura thoughtfully. "You will inherit a large fortune, but I am poor, and if I married you, your trustees would imagine I, and my father, had planned to capture you."
"Now you are ridiculous!" Jimmy declared. "You have talent, beauty, and cultivation: I'm raw and know nothing but the cotton mill. You ought to see, if I can persuade you, the gain is altogether mine."
Laura gently shook her head. "I don't see it, Jimmy, and others would not."
"Dick Leyland might grumble," Jimmy admitted with a frown. "For all that, he has nothing to do with my marrying, and Sir Jim is another type. He'd fall in love with you—"