"Let me
go! What is death, compared to such a life as is waiting for _me?_" She
looked him over, in one disdainful glance from head to foot; her voice
rose to its loudest and firmest tones. "Why, even _you_; would have the
courage to die if you were in my place!"
Geoffrey glanced round toward the lawn.
"Hush!" he said. "They will hear you!"
"Let them hear me! When _I_ am past hearing _them_, what does it
matter?"
He put her back by main force on the chair. In another moment they must
have heard her, through all the noise and laughter of the game.
"Say what you want," he resumed, "and I'll do it. Only be reasonable. I
can't marry you to-day."
"You can!"
"What nonsense you talk! The house and grounds are swarming with
company. It can't be!"
"It can! I have been thinking about it ever since we came to this house.
I have got something to propose to you. Will you hear it, or not?"
"Speak lower!"
"Will you hear it, or not?"
"There's somebody coming!"
"Will you hear it, or not?"
"The devil take your obstinacy! Yes!"
The answer had been wrung from him. Still, it was the answer she
wanted--it opened the door to hope. The instant he had consented to hear
her her mind awakened to the serious necessity of averting discovery by
any third person who might stray idly into the summer-house.
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