his hand, looked at me as if we were on a desert island and there was
no one else in all the world but me, and he would ask for no one else
if I alone was there; and then with his other hand he tried to take out
of my fingers a rose he had just pulled and given me. I remembered in
time that Jess had told me to keep my hands to myself if anybody seemed
interested in them, so I put the rose on the bench and sat on my hands
and asked him if he did not think Marjorie Graham a perfectly beautiful
person; and he said he hadn't noticed her sufficiently to know what she
looked like, as he never saw but one face now. And then he leaned a
little closer and asked me if I knew how wonderful I was and what my
eyes could do to a man's heart if I would only let come in them what
could come, and which he hoped would some day come only for him; and I
asked him what it was, not knowing, as it had never been mentioned
before, and he said it was a thing a man would die for. And then he
took the rose up and put it to his lips and asked me if I would marry
him; asked me if I could never care for him as he cared for me, for he
knew now that he had never really loved before, and if I would promise
to marry him he would be in heaven, his happiness would be so great.

It was perfectly thrilling, much better than anything I have ever seen
on the stage. He tried to get one of the hands I was still sitting on,
but I thought I had better not let him have it, as we were not engaged,
and Jess had said no affectionaries until you are engaged. And then,
too, I remembered he had probably said the same things several times
before, he seemed so familiar with them, and I had a feeling that Billy
was standing by, perfectly disgusted, but ready to fish me out if I
fell in. I came pretty near falling, and then I told Whythe I wouldn't
be through college until I was twenty and I didn't believe in waiting
for anything on earth for four years, and though it was awfully nice in
him to ask me to marry him, my father would have fits if he thought I