“Of course I please.”
The music struck up an abandoned jig, but he danced with great dignity till his feet ran away with him. Then he made off with her again in one of his frenzies, and a laughter filled his whole being.
She heard him growl something.
“What did you say?” she said.
“I said, ‘Damn you!’”
She laughed so heartily at this that she had to stop dancing for a moment. She astonished him by a brazen question:
“Do you really love me as much as that?”
“More,” he groaned, and they bobbed and ducked and skipped as he muttered a wild anachronism:
“If you don’t marry me I’ll murder you.”
“You’re murdering me now. May I breathe, please?”