kind of life that’s worth anything to me now that don’t include you. I don’t need to tell you that I want you to marry me. You know that by now, I guess, without any words from me. I love you, and I love you as a man, not as a boy, seriously and earnestly. I can give you no idea how seriously, how earnestly. I want you to be my wife. Laura, my dear girl, I know I could make you happy.”

“It isn’t,” answered Laura slowly, perceiving as he paused that he expected her to say something, “much a question of that.”

“What is it, then? I won’t make a scene. Don’t you love me? Don’t you think, my girl, you could ever love me?”