characteristic impetuosity, saying in a voice that would get choky now and then, in spite of manful efforts to keep it steady—
“I’ve loved you ever since I’ve known you, Jo; couldn’t help it, you’ve been so good to me. I’ve tried to show it, but you wouldn’t let me; now I’m going to make you hear, and give me an answer, for I can’t go on so any longer.”
“I wanted to save you this; I thought you’d understand—” began Jo, finding it a great deal harder than she expected.
“I know you did; but girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say ‘No’ when they mean ‘Yes,’ and drive a man out of his wits just for the fun of it,” returned Laurie, entrenching himself behind an undeniable fact.
“ I don’t. I never wanted to make you care for me so, and I went away to keep you from it if I could.”
“I thought so; it was like you, but it was no use. I only loved you all the more, and I worked hard to please you, and I gave up billiards and everything you didn’t like, and waited and never complained, for I hoped you’d love me, though I’m not half good enough—” here there was a choke that couldn’t be controlled, so he decapitated buttercups while he cleared his “confounded throat.”
“Yes, you are; you’re a great deal too good for me, and I’m so grateful to you, and so proud and fond of you, I don’t see why I can’t love you as you want me to. I’ve tried, but I can’t change the feeling, and it would be a lie to say I do when I don’t.”
“Really, truly, Jo?”
He stopped short, and caught both her hands as he put his question with a look that she did not soon forget.