"It's--it's that I----"
"Y-es?" in soft encouragement.
"W-want to know you most tremendously now. I don't want to wait several years for chance and hazard."
"O-h!" as though the information conveyed a gentle shock to her. Her low-breathed exclamation nearly finished Brown.
"I knew you'd think it unpardonable for me--at such a time--to venture to--to--ask--say--express--convey----"
"Why do you--how can I--where could we--" She recovered herself resolutely. "I do not think we ought to take advantage of an accident like this.... Do you? Besides, probably, in the natural course of social events----"
"But it may be years! months! weeks!" insisted Brown, losing control of himself.
"I should hope it would at least be a decently reasonable interval of several weeks----"
"But I don't know what to do if I never see you again for weeks! I c-care so much--for--you."
She shrank back in her chair, and in her altered face he read that he had disgraced himself.