immediately. Have I your attention?"

"Completely."

"Let me see. In the first place there are several general types of
proposal. There is the calmly rational, the passionate whirlwind, the
dangerously controlled, or volcano under a sheet of ice--" she broke off.
"I don't know how women do it," she said. "I only know about men."

He smiled, "But you admit to knowing all about them, I gather?"

It would have been folly to deny it.

"And then there's the meltingly pathetic," she went on. "I imagine
that's what women attempt oftenest. Let us begin with that. Now you are
to suppose that I, with tears streaming down my face, have just
confessed that I have always looked up to you as a sort of god, that I
hardly dare--"

"Wait, wait!" cried Riatt. "This is by far the most interesting part of
the lesson, and you go so fast. I have no imagination. I don't know how
it would be, you must say all those things."

"Do I have to cry?" said Christine.

Riatt debated the point.

"No," he answered at length, "I can imagine the tears, but everything
else you must act out. Particularly that part about my seeming like a
god to you."