'And yet I think I have heard you boast of the cook of your club.' And
then again there was silence for a minute or two.

'Patty,' said he, stopping again in the path; 'answer my question. I
have a right to demand an answer. Do you love me?'

'And what if I do? What if I have been so silly as to allow your
perfections to be too many for my weak heart? What then, Captain
Broughton?'

'It cannot be that you love me, or you would not joke now.'

'Perhaps not, indeed,' she said. It seemed as though she were resolved
not to yield an inch in her own humour. And then again they walked on.

'Patty,' he said once more, 'I shall get an answer from you
tonight,--this evening; now, during this walk, or I shall return
tomorrow, and never revisit this spot again.'

'Oh, Captain Broughton, how should we ever manage to live without you?'

'Very well,' he said; 'up to the end of this walk I can bear it
all;--and one word spoken then will mend it all.'

During the whole of this time she felt that she was ill-using him. She
knew that she loved him with all her heart; that it would nearly kill
her to part with him; that she had heard his renewed offer with an
ecstasy of joy. She acknowledged to herself that he was giving proof of
his devotion as strong as any which a girl could receive from her lover.