Page:The Toll of the Bush.pdf/100

Fletcher, ‘I am that one. But I do not press you for a decision now. In a matter of such moment it is only right that you should take time to reflect.’

‘No, no,’ said Eve, startled. ‘My hesitation does not arise from any doubt as to my decision. I was wondering whether I had to excuse myself for any action which, however unconsciously performed, may have led you to believe that such a proposal would be acceptable to me.’

‘I can think of none,’ said Mr. Fletcher, smiling. ‘But there has been no action of yours since I have known you which has not had the effect of more firmly convincing me that no other woman would be so acceptable to me.’

His manner was sincere and respectful, with, for the moment, but little of the assurance that ordinarily characterised it. Eve found herself thinking that if as a clergyman he was dictatorial and inclined to crush opposition by a display of brute force, it was not so as a lover. Yet the influence he had begun to exert over her faded with the disappearance of the cleric, and was not replenished by the advent of the admirer. Had Mr. Fletcher been fully conscious of his power, he might have preferred to elaborate his opening sentence instead of covering and obscuring it in the ordinary asseverations of affection.

In these few moments of reflection the girl had regained her self-command. The first feeling of something incongruous in this abrupt change of their relationship, the sense of loss and disappointment, almost amounting to a betrayal, she now, with a clearer mind, recognised as unreasonable,