"And if it wasn't for that you'd accept my 'proposition'--now--wouldn't
you?"
"I would not," I replied, wrenching myself away with an effort that
put my hair topsy-turvy--it always does try to come down if I make a
sudden movement, and I washed it only yesterday.
"What gorgeous hair you have!" he said. "Sometimes I've caught a
glimpse of it just as I was entering a room--and I've had to retreat
and compose myself to make a fresh try."
"You've been talking to your mother!" I exclaimed--I'd been casting
about for an explanation of all this sudden shrewdness of his in ways
feminine.
"I have," said he. "It's as important to her as to me that you don't
escape."
"And she told you that I was in love with _you_!" I tried to put a
little--not too much--scorn into the "you."
"She did," he answered. "Do you deny that it's true?"
"I have told you I would never accept your 'proposition,'" was my
answer.
"So you did," said he. "Then you mean that you're going to sacrifice
my mother's happiness and mine, simply because you're afraid of being
accused of mercenary motives?"
"I shall never accept your 'proposition,'" I repeated, with a faint
smile that was a plain hint.
He came very close to me and looked down into my face. "What do you
mean by that?" he demanded. And then he must have remembered what
his proposition was--a strictly business arrangement on both sides.
For, with a sort of gasp of relief, he took me in his arms. I do love
the combination of strength and tenderness in a man. He had looked
and talked and been so strong up to that instant. Then he was _so_
tender--I could hardly keep back the tears.
"Wouldn't you like me to tell mother?" he asked. "She's just in the
next room--and--"
I nodded and said, "I never should have caught you if it hadn't been
for her."
"Nor I you," said he. And he put me in a chair and opened the door. I
somehow couldn't look up, though I knew she was there.
"I don't know whether to laugh or cry," said "ma" Burke. "So I guess
I'll just do both." And then she seated herself and was as good as her
word.
[Illustration]