"In the time already passed since my proposal, you surely have reached a decision, and it is cruel longer to keep me in suspense."
Alice began to cry.
Paul attributed her tearful, hesitating manner to yielding consent, and said:
"It will be better for me to now know my fate than to suffer the uncertainties of three long months."
As Alice still hesitated, Paul boorishly insisted:
"Do here and now decide my fate."
Thus pressed, Alice replied:
"Mr. Lanier, I am so sorry to say that I never can become your wife."
Alice continued in a stammering way to tell Paul why she could not accept his proposal.
Seeing that the frightened girl had power to refuse, Paul Lanier listened with stoic, dogged silence. His craft did not forsake him, but encouraging Alice freely and fully to state her whole mind, he helplessly acquiesced.