'Is not your consent enough, without consultation?'
'I could not properly give it.'
'Dear me,' said the girl, 'what a word 'properly' is! I think I never wanted to do anything, or go anywhere, that it did not rise up before me like a five-barred gate. What can I 'properly' do, sir, if you please, in the premises?'
Looking with his mighty gray eyes into her face,soft they were too, and persuading, as well as mighty,he said in a sort of whisper,
'Go with me to New York, Wych! Then we can make it all right.'
Her face grew suddenly grave with a frightened look, as if she had stepped into a net, or caught herself in a trap.
'We were not talking of that,' she said hurriedly,'and there is no need to talk of that. And you promised.'
'There is no need to talk about it, if it is ever to be done,' said Dane smiling. 'If you will think about itwhich I believe you never do, you will perceive that unless we are to be separated all our lives, we must some time or other be married. And the best way with anything you are afraid of, is to do it, and have it over!'
He had smiled, and his accent was very winning; but he grew grave again, and stood with folded arms looking at Wych Hazel. Even then he would not use persuasions; he would not have her against her will; but he watched her anxiously. If she refused him now, it might be long before he brought up the subject again. He would not tell her that, either; he left her free; and waited to see how the delicate balances of her mind would turn. But he sighed a little as she hesitated, and then smiled again as he spoke; a smile very frank and sweet.
'Be brave, Hazel! If you are ever going to trust me, you may as well do it at once.'