"Stella!"
He paused; he was conscious how pregnant with meaning the pause was to her, how she waited for his words. He let them come.
"Stella, will you be my wife?"
"You know I will! How long have you known it, sir? How long have you been aware that you had only to ask to have? I go all over shame when I think of it. I don't--I really don't--think you've used me quite fairly, sir. Because, you know, you oughtn't to keep on telling a girl that you care for her, and--then say nothing more. I've even sometimes wondered if you were playing with me--I have! Were you?"
"Never. How could you think it?"
"I had to think something, hadn't I? And--what could I think? Then you do really and truly care for me?"
"With the whole force of my being." She drew a long breath, as if it were a sigh of pleasure.
"And you really and truly want me to be your wife?"
"As Tom said of Mary--if I get you I get all that I want in the world."
"Then, why didn't you try to get me before?"