"Stella, you mustn't tempt me. If you only knew what I'd give to be able to take you in my arms."
"Rodney, it isn't fair of you to talk like that. You say that sort of thing, and make me feel as if the world were whirling round and round, and then you go no farther."
As she turned and looked at him he saw how her cheeks were flushed; that tears were in her pretty eyes; how her lips were twisted as by physical pain. He really was so fond of her that the sight of her suffering moved him almost beyond endurance. Careless of spectators who might come at any moment to look at the birds, he took both her hands in his.
He paused; he was conscious how pregnant with meaning the pause was to her, how she waited for his words. He let them come.
"You know I will! How long have you known it, sir? How long have you been aware that you had only to ask to have? I go all over shame when I think of it. I don't--I really don't--think you've used me quite fairly, sir. Because, you know, you oughtn't to keep on telling a girl that you care for her, and--then say nothing more. I've even sometimes wondered if you were playing with me--I have! Were you?"
"I had to think something, hadn't I? And--what could I think? Then you do really and truly care for me?"
She drew a long breath, as if it were a sigh of pleasure.
"And you really and truly want me to be your wife?"
"As Tom said of Mary--if I get you I get all that I want in the world."
"Then, why didn't you try to get me before?"
"Stella, every man has his own standard. You have money; perhaps one day you'll have more; I have no money; perhaps I never may have. Under those circumstances, though I worshipped the ground you stood on, I had, and have, no right to ask you to be my wife. I have held out against the temptation to do so over and over again, but--I could hold out no longer. You must forgive me."
"For what? For having what you call 'held out'? I am not sure that I do. You can't have wanted me so very, very much, or you wouldn't have held out so long. That's what I feel."
"The days I've thought of you, and the nights I've dreamed!"
"And do you suppose that I can't think--and dream?"
"Sometimes, after I've left you with the words unuttered, and thought of what I should feel if I had you in my arms, it was pretty hard to bear."