Page:The little blue devil (IA littlebluedevil00mackiala).pdf/259

calm, answered briefly: “I expect it has been hard sometimes. I think you have been good.”

“Yes—but I’m not sure that I’ve not been mistaken. You’re so young—you mightn’t have understood. I want to marry you, Pamela. You don’t suppose I thought you were the sort of girl who’d let herself be kissed by any man. Do you think I’d have touched you if I hadn’t meant this? I love you, and—well, I know life out here’s very different from what you were brought up to, but Dad tells me you are not going back to your old home, so—Pamela, I thought maybe you’d let me make you one.”

She answered as steadily as mingled excitement and anger would let her: “I’m sorry, but I could not possibly marry you.”

“You don’t care for me?”

“No.”

She would have liked to add a hundred things. He had laid an absolute trap for her—brought her out on a long drive, from which there was no escape, while he said precisely what he chose to her. Oh, it was useless to try and make him see it from her point of view—he was utterly different—words were powerless. No doubt it was an honour for any man to ask a girl to marry him, but she could feel nothing but anger. If he had chosen the proper time and place she might have felt kinder, but this was intolerable.

He was speaking again. She only heard half he said, but apparently he was the sort of man who could not take no for an answer.

“I always know what I want straight away and go for it without any beating about the bush or indecision. I know my own mind. But you’re different—I know that. I couldn’t expect you to like me right off, but I’ll wait, Pamela, if you say so; I’ll wait, though I’ve never waited for anything else in all my life.”