"Nobody--by machinery."
She clapped her hands. "Neither am I. It is too stupid, isn't it? I don't want to marry the man I ought to marry. I'd rather take chances with a man who attracts me and who is attracted by me.... There was, in the old days--before everybody married by machinery--something not altogether unworthy in being a siren, wasn't there?... It's perfectly delightful to think of your seeing me out here on the rocks, and then instantly plunging into the waves and tearing a foaming right of way to what might have been destruction!"
Her flushed, excited face between its clustering curls looked straight into his.
"It was destruction," he said. His own voice sounded odd to him. "Utter destruction to my peace of mind," he said again.
"You--don't think that you love me, do you?" she asked. "That would be too--too perfect a climax.... Do you?" she asked curiously.
"I--think so."
"Do--do you know it?" He gazed bravely at her: "Yes."
She flung up both arms joyously, then laughed aloud:
"Oh, the wonder of it! It is too perfect, too beautiful! You really love me? Do you? Are you sure?"
"Yes.... Will you try to love me?"