“Your words carry little encouragement. Listen. While I do not press for an answer, surely I may state my case. I can offer you much that appeals to every woman. I am not rich, but I have a profitable business. No woman in Plainville will be better provided for. In a few years I hope to have saved enough to enter business in a larger centre, and introduce you to circles where your personality will command the admiration it deserves. As for this boy——”
She made a gesture of dissent. “Your argument makes no appeal to me, Mr. Gardiner. A profitable business is a small thing to offer for a woman’s affections. You undervalue the prize you seek. And if social status were a consideration to me——” She left the sentence unfinished, but Gardiner thought he understood.
“Forgive me if I have seemed to place too much stress on material things. I merely wish to satisfy you that my declaration—my love—is reasonable, and that I am in a position to carry it out to its logical conclusion. Now, tell me I may hope?”
“Hark! What was that?” she whispered, her face tense with excitement. “Surely I heard a sound?”
“It is nothing. The thunder, or the wind, or the rain. On such a night the air is full of sound.”
“But this was different; a real sound, a human sound. I was sure I heard it.”
“Your nerves are playing tricks on you to-night, Miss Vane. I assure you there was no sound but the elements. Compose yourself, and tell me I may hope.”
“I can tell you nothing now.”
“Then to-morrow?”
“No, not to-morrow.”