She smiled. "Has Viviette accepted you?"
He broke away from her with a gay laugh, and lit a cigarette.
"Your feminine subtlety does you credit, Katherine."
"But has she?"
"Well, no--not exactly."
"Will she?"
He brought his hand down on the table. "By heavens, I'll make her! I've got most of the things I've wanted during my life, and it'll be odd if I don't get the thing I want more than all the rest put together. Now answer my question, my dear Katherine," he continued teasingly. "Would you have married me?"
The smile faded from Katherine's face. She could not parry the question as she had done before, and it probed depths. She said very seriously and sweetly:
"I should have done, Austin, as I always shall do, whatever you ask me to do. I'm glad you didn't ask me--very glad--for the love a woman gives a man died within me, you know."
He took her hand and kissed it.