"Please!" she said.
"I love you so much that I waken at night just to say your name, over and over, and when dawn comes through the windows—"
"You don't know what you are saying!" she said wildly. "I am—still—"
"I welcome the daylight," he went on, talking very fast, "because it means another day when I can see you. If it sounds foolish, it's—it's really lots worse than it sounds, Patty."
The door opened just then, and Doctor Barnes' voice spoke from the step.
"I say," he complained, "you needn't—"
"Get out!" Mr. Pierce said angrily, and the door slammed. The second's interruption gave him time, I think, to see how far he'd gone, and his voice, when he spoke again, was not so hopeful.
"I'm not pleading my cause," he said humbly, "I know I haven't any cause. I have nothing to offer you."
"You said this afternoon," Miss Patty said softly, "that you could offer me the—the kind of love that a woman could be proud of."
She finished off with a sort of gasp, as if she was shocked at herself. I was so excited that my heart beat a tatoo against my ribs, and without my being conscious of it, as you may say, the pantry door opened about an inch and I found myself with an eye to the crack.