I think it was the homely smell of hot buttered toast
that did it. I nearly asked you to marry me."
"And I had been feeling particularly lonely," she laughed.
"Would you have accepted me?"
"Do you think that it is quite a fair question?"
"We have always been frank with one another since our childhood," said
he.
She smiled. "Has Viviette accepted you?"
He broke away from her with a gay laugh, and lit a cigarette.
"Your feminine subtlety does you credit, Katherine."
"But has she?"
"Well, no--not exactly."
"Will she?"
He brought his hand down on the table. "By heavens, I'll make her! I've
got most of the things I've wanted during my life, and it'll be odd if I
don't get the thing I want more than all the rest put together. Now
answer my question, my dear Katherine," he continued teasingly. "Would
you have married me?"
The smile faded from Katherine's face. She could not parry the question
as she had done before, and it probed depths. She said very seriously
and sweetly:
"I should have done, Austin, as I always shall do, whatever you ask me
to do.
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