'My intelligence may be limited, but it seems to me that only four words are needed.' He counted them out deliberately on his fingers. 'Will—you—marry—me?'
'That is both clear and simple.' She pressed back the thumb which he had left untouched. 'I reply in one: no.'
He looked at her with every sign of astonishment.
'I beg your pardon?' he said.
'You heard quite correctly,' she smiled. 'The reply is in the negative.'
She resisted a mad, but inconvenient, temptation to dance a breakdown on the floor of the hansom.
'You're joking,' said Dick calmly. 'You're certainly joking.'
'I will be a sister to you.'
Dick reflected for a moment, and he rubbed his chin.
'The chance will never recur, you know,' he remarked.