She lay quietly, not answering for a while, then she whispered, "Do you really want me?"
Perhaps his arm relaxed a little, but his voice was very steady. "I really want to make you happy."
"And you'll let me love you with all my heart?" Her eyes were hidden.
He put his hand against the softness of her hair, turning her face up toward him. "I shall hope that you may love me with all your heart, and that I may be worthy of it."
Her hand crept up and touched his cheek. "Kiss me," she whispered, like a child.
He would have been less than a man if his heart had not leaped a little, if he had not responded to the love call of this wistful white and gold woman creature.
"My dear," he said, brokenly, and bent his head.
On the foggy streets below men and women passed and repassed like ghosts in the stillness. Little Miss Matthews, meeting Captain Stubbs on a street corner, was unconscious of his nearness until the little captain, guided by that sixth sense, which is given to sailors for their protection at sea, hailed her.
"You needn't hurry home," he told her; "that Betty child don't want you. Dr. Blake is there. That's his car."
"He was there yesterday," said Miss Matthews, disturbed by the doctor's departure from his usual routine.