“Oh, nothing very much—not at first. She seemed to think—she used to
say it—that I was different from most men. That’s what she appeared to
be on the lookout for. All the other chaps she knew were so much alike,
and I—Well, that’s how it began. She wanted the unusual—and I turned up.
After a while she thought I wasn’t unusual enough—said it in so many
words—But you know that story. I’ve told you too many times already.”
“And now?”
“She thinks she’ll marry me.”
He brought out the statement in a voice all awe and amazement.
“She only thinks?”
“Oh, she will. She wouldn’t say anything about it if she didn’t mean—”
“And—and you’re going to—to let her?”
“Let her? Why, man, you might as well ask me if I’d let God forgive my
sins if He said He’d do it.”
“God could forgive your sins and not be any the worse off Himself.”
He sprang forward in his chair, grabbing at the bedclothes.
“Frank, I swear to you it will be the same with her. She’ll never be
sorry. I’ll never let her. She’ll be like God to me. I’ll make my whole
life worship and service.”
“If that’s what she wants.”
“It’s what every woman wants, so they say. They just ask to be loved;
and when you love them enough—” He uttered a little shrill laugh, in
which there was a touch of the hysterical that was always somewhere about
him. “God! Frank, it’s wonderful! Even you who know her can’t imagine
what it means to a lonely bloke like me.”