'Ah!' he cried. 'Here's a kind of notion. I wonder if it's an idea. Would it do to say, in order to make you forget, just the opposite of what I said? You see—you understand—something like this, meaning—of course, you know what I mean—nothing more, you know—eh—ah!—suppose I say, "I would far rather marry you than Muriel." Is that—emphatic enough?'
Miss Jane bent forward, and put her head on his left shoulder, and her hand on his right.
'Mr. Dempster!' she said. 'Alec!' she sighed.
'Eh?—eh—ah!'—and he had to hold her—to clutch her, to save himself from falling.
'I'm the happiest woman in the world.'
'I'm—I'm very glad of it.'
'I never loved anybody before,' she said, so sweetly that Dempster wondered.
Then she buried her face in his neck, she did, the stupid, soft-hearted creature, and whispered, 'Oh, the torture of wooing you for Muriel! But now I have my reward!'
And she did think this as she said it, although it had never occurred to her before.
'Yes,' said Dempster, feeling that the pause must be filled up somehow. 'Of course,' he added, making a half-hearted attempt to force her back into her chair, which she mistook for a caress, 'I only suggested the contradiction. I did not——'