And now, behind her on the office floor, she heard his footsteps, and in one breath was suddenly cold with the fear that her hour had come, and hot with the fear that it had not.
Engrossed with her papers, she moved so as to keep her back toward him; but he, with a directness which would not flinch even in this untried emergency, deliberately intruded himself between her and the table; and so once more they stood face to face.
"I don't understand you," he began, his manner at its quietest. "Why do you want to do this for me?"
At this close range, she glanced once at him and instantly looked away. His face was as white as paper; and when she saw that her heart first stopped beating, and then pounded off in a wild frightened pæan.
"I—cannot tell you—I don't know—exactly."
"What do you mean?"
She hardly recognized his voice; instinctively she began backing away.
"I don't think I—can explain. You—rather terrify me this morning."
"Are you in love with ME?" he demanded in a terrible voice, beginning at the wrong end, as he would be sure to do.
Finger at her lip, her blue eyes, bright with unshed tears, resting upon his in a gaze as direct as a child's, Sharlee nodded her head up and down.