With a rush he realised
how consistently he had been thinking of her and how enormously he had
been counting on her falling in with his plans, and the realisation was
followed by a sickening moment of fear. How little he actually knew of her
and of her way of thought. What assurance had he that she would not laugh,
jump back upon the horse, and ride away? He was afraid as he had never
been afraid before. Dumbly his mind groped about for a way to begin.
Expressions he had caught and noted in her strong serious little face when
he had achieved but a mild curiosity concerning her came back to visit his
mind and he tried desperately to build an instant idea of her from these.
And then turning his face from her he plunged directly into his thoughts
of the past months as though she had been sharing talking to the colonel."
"I have been thinking we might marry, you and I," he said, and cursed
himself for the blundering bluntness of the declaration.
"You do get things done, don't you?" she replied, smiling.
"Why should you have been thinking anything of the sort?"
"Because I want to live with you," he said; "I have been talking to the
colonel."
"About marrying me?" She seemed about to begin laughing.
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