I'll come
over and get you tomorrow and marry you if you'll let me. I don't
suppose you will. But I do expect to keep on at you till you do....
Good heaven, child, haven't you seen I was in earnest?" he broke off
at the expression of her wide-open eyes.
Joy believed in love at first sight, as she had every personal
reason to, but in spite of Clarence's intensity she was not quite
convinced. She looked up at him. He was white, and his mouth was
tense. And he was holding her like a vise. He was in earnest.
"Maybe--maybe you think you do mean it now." she said breathlessly.
"If you do--I'm sorry for you. It isn't nice to be in love unless
the other person is, too."
"What do you know about it?" he burst out angrily. "You aren't in
love with that virtuous citizen of yours, whether or not he is with
you. Let him go back to Gail. She's been considering one of her tame
cats for a year, and she'd about decided to marry him when you came
along and broke it up. You'd sweep any man off his feet. You and I
belong together, Joy darling. I'm going to marry you, if you were
engaged to the whole College of Surgeons."
"The dance is over," said Joy a little faintly.
"Then come over here where it's quiet. I haven't finished."
"Oh, please no--" cried Joy, freeing herself from his hold eagerly.
This was getting unexpectedly like earnest, and it had been a shock.
She did not want to hear any more about how Clarence felt.
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