"Please stop. You hurt me."

"How about it? Two months?"

"Certainly not."

"Three?"

"Well, maybe."

"No maybe in that case. We marry."

"But you're only a boy."

"Don't worry about me. You'll find out how much of a boy I am."

He seemed of a sudden to open up a new world to her, and she realized
that she had never really lived before. This man represented something
bigger and stronger than ever her husband had dreamed of. In his young
way he was terrible, irresistible.

"Well, in three months then," she whispered, while he rocked her cozily
in his arms.





Chapter IX