Her face was clear and radiant now as she put the jewel back in its case.
“Yes, possibly! But I sometimes fancy I should like to make sure that it is worse! I’m wickedly human enough to wish to see him suffer!”
“And yet he’s not worth such an expenditure of nerve force!” said Chauvet, smiling kindly. “Why not spare yourself for somebody else?”
She looked at him with something of pathos in her eyes.
“Somebody else? My dear Professor, there’s not a soul in all the world that cares for me!”
“You are wrong,—I care!” he replied, with an emphasis that startled her—“I care so much that I’ll marry you to-morrow if you’ll have me!”
She was so amazed that for the moment she could not speak. He, perfectly calm and collected, continued with a kind of oratorical fervour:
“I will marry you, I say! I find you charming and intelligent. Charm in woman is common—intelligence is rare. You are a happy combination of the two. You are not a girl—neither am I a boy. But if you take me, you will not take a poor man. I am rich—much richer than anybody knows. I have become interested in you—more than this, I have grown fond of you. I would try my best—for the rest of my life—which cannot be very long—to make you happy. I would give you a pretty house in Paris—and all the luxuries which dainty women appreciate. And I promise I would not bore you. And at my death I would leave you all I possess—even the ‘Eye of Rajuna!’ Stop now, before you speak! Think it over! I wish to give you plenty of time”—here his voice trembled a little—“for it will be a great blow—yes, a very great blow to me if you refuse!”
Taken by surprise as she was, Diana could not but appreciate the quiet and chivalrous manner of the Professor, as after having made his declaration and proposal, he stood “at attention” as it were, waiting for her first word.
She rose from her chair and laid one hand on his arm.