I said it, smiling, for I dreamt not he would consent.
"For ever," he repeated, with quiet assent.
I looked at him with breathless joy. He smiled.
"Ask me for something else," he said.
"I dare not," I replied, drawing in a long breath, "lest you should take back the first gift to punish my presumption."
"Your presumption! Oh, Daisy!"
I gave him a quick look; as our eyes met, I read in his the dangerous and intoxicating knowledge, that he who for seven years had been my master, now voluntarily abdicated that throne of authority where two so seldom sit in peace, and was calling me to something more than equality. My heart beat, my face flushed; I looked at him proudly.
"And so," I said, a little agitatedly, "I am really to be your friend. How good!—how kind! But I am not to obey you now?" I asked, breaking off.
"Don't name the word," he replied, impatiently.
"How odd!" I observed, both startled and amused. "How odd that I, who used to feel so much afraid of you, when you used to chide, punish, turn out of the room—"