"By asking you to set a definite date for our impending marriage?"
"It is not impending!" she retorted, exasperated, as Diana and Wallace came out together and walked toward the farther end of the terrace.
"Do you refuse to marry me?"
"Yes, I do; I am sorry. I really cannot help how you feel about it. This year of liberty has been a year of happiness. I don't wish to marry. I don't know when I may wish to. I am perfectly contented; and that's the truth, Billy."
"So—you refuse me?"
"For the present—yes."
"No; you must answer me for all time, to-night."
She nodded. "Very well, then; I refuse definitely—and for all time.... And, Billy Inwood, you have brought this calamity upon yourself."
But Lillian's anger was always short-lived; she was already sorry for him. Besides, she was convinced that he would continue to dangle. It had been her experience with men that they were never reconciled to the unobtainable.
So with one of her swift, smiling changes of feeling she held out her hand to Inwood. He took it.