Carroll's face paled as he looked at him. “On my daughter?”
“Yes. Captain Carroll, will you be seated again for a few minutes. I have something I would like to say to you.”
Anderson was pale, but his voice was quite firm. He had a strange sensation as of a man who had begun a dreaded leap, and felt that in reality the worst was over, that the landing could in no way equal the shock of the start. Carroll followed him back into the sitting-room and sat down.
Anderson began at once with no preface. “I should like to marry your daughter, if she can love me well enough,” he said, simply.
“Does she know you at all, Mr. Anderson?” Carroll said, in a dazed sort of fashion.
“She knows me a little. I have, of course, seen her in my store.”
“Yes.”
“And once, as you may remember, she came here.”
“Yes, when she had the fright from the tramp.”
“She cannot know me very well, I admit.”