"And I'm homely and frowsy, and dowdy and horrid and a perfect mess. Am I a mess? Say—"
"No!" The rebel in the Tyro broke bonds. "You're the loveliest and most adorable and sweetest thing on this earth, and I love you."
"I—I think you might have said it before," said Little Miss Grouch in a very wee voice.
"I'd no business to say it at all. But I simply couldn't go without—"
"Go?" she cried, startled. "Where?"
"Away. It doesn't matter where."
"Away from me?"
"Yes."
She faced him with leveled eyes, tearless now, and infinitely pleading.
"You couldn't do that," she said.