"Have any other men bothered you?" he interrupted.
They were walking towards Tottenham Court Road as they spoke, and her arm was securely held in his.
"Of course they have," she answered. "Do you think a girl can walk about London without some man pestering her. Old men!..." She shuddered and said "Oh!" in tones of disgust. "Why are old men so beastly?"
"Are they?"
"Oh, yes, of course they are. Beastly old things. I think old men ought to be killed before they get nasty ... but never mind that. Being pestered by you is very different from that sort of thing. I know very well that you won't stop asking me to marry you until I either say I will or I run away from London altogether and hide myself from you; and I don't want to do that. So I'll marry you!"
He glanced at her in a wrathful manner.
"Is that what my mother told you to say?" he asked.
"Your mother? She never said anything at all about it!"
John laughed. "I told her about it," he said. "That's what she came over about. She wanted to have a look at you!"
"Yes, I suppose I ought to have guessed that. I did in a way, but I didn't know you'd said anything definite about it!"