'Ah, my dear love, why have you come to make it harder for me now I must
let you go?' As she drew him closer, and he hid his sightless eyes in
the warm comfort of her breast, we slipped away and left them.
After a little while a message came asking us to go up again. He was
back on his pillows and Monica was sitting beside him very quietly. All
the tortured look had gone from his face and a great peace was there
instead, and a great thankfulness in hers.
'Meg,' he cried, with his old laugh, 'how brazen all you modern women
are. You never have the vapours like your grandmothers, never faint
when you are pressed to name the day, as any lady should. Instead, you
come and beg a chap to marry you when he's already said he won't in
writing, and bother his life out till he says he will, just to stop the
creature chattering. This thing,' he said, groping for Monica's hand,
'says that three arms and two eyes are enough for any couple to start
housekeeping on, so--oh, good gracious, _could_ I have a cigarette;
being proposed to is so dashed exhausting.'
Then we said good-bye and Monica came down to see us off. Just as she
and Ross went out of the room Charlie called me back, and as I leaned
over him he said with his old absurdity,--
'Isn't it a merciful dispensation that I'm "amphidextrous," Meg? I
shall, at least, be able to fish with my left hand,' and then, with a
little wave of his old diffidence coming back, he added,--
'Wasn't it perfect of Him to give me back Monica?'