The Adventures of a Modest Man

by Robert W. Chambers

"Why may I not call you Helen?" he was saying.

"Why should you, Mr. Jones?"

The infatuated pair were oblivious of him. Should he sneeze? No; his own case was too recent; their attitude fascinated him; he sat down softly to see how it was done.

"If—some day—I might be fortunate enough to call you more than Helen——"

"Mr. Jones!"

"I can't help it; I love you so—so undauntedly that I have got to tell you something about it! You don't mind, do you?"

"But I do mind."

"Very much?"

Ellis thought: "Is that the way a man looks when he says things like that?" He shuddered, then a tremor of happiness seized him. Molly Sandys had emerged from the hut.