“There is no one else I would rather have.”

Corthell caught her hand of a sudden.

“Laura,” he cried, “let us end this fencing and quibbling once and for all. Dear, dear girl, I love you with all the strength of all the good in me. Let me be the best a man can be to the woman he loves.”

Laura flashed a smile at him.

“If you can make me love you enough,” she answered.

“And you think I can?” he exclaimed.

“You have my permission to try,” she said.

She hoped fervently that now, without further words, he would leave her. It seemed to her that it would be the most delicate chivalry on his part⁠—having won this much⁠—to push his advantage no further. She waited anxiously for his next words. She began to fear that she had trusted too much upon her assurance of his tact.