"You know why," Jenny answered.
"Then the reason you don't want to marry me shows me that I had no right to ask you, isn't that so?"
"No, it isn't; it's different with a woman. Besides, I do want to marry you, but I won't."
Rufus moved a little nearer. "Jenny, we've each got a minus sign against us—there's no getting over that; but Holy Moses! you're hung all over so thick with plus signs that your minus doesn't show up at all! Your face, your eyes, your hair, your voice, your disposition, your spunk, your common sense—all plus! The trouble is with me. There would be times when a girl might blush if she had a one-armed husband!"
"Blush? If she did she ought to be struck by lightning!"—and Jenny's eyes flashed.
Rufus caught her hands. "Jenny, Jenny, be true with me, speak straight out! Do I seem a little short of a full man? How do you see me in your secret heart?"
Jenny rose to her feet under a kind of spell that made him rise to meet her. She leaned against him and said: "I see you whole, and strong and precious and splendid, Rufus!"
Rufus held her close, drying his secret tears on her hair.
"Oh, you little brick!" he whispered. "You darling, winsome little brick! Would you mind kissing me?"
"Not in the least!" she answered, and was proceeding to do it with all her heart when Alfinso entered with a huge armful of kindling, which he dropped into the woodbox with such force that the house shook.