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“There’s nothing to be scared about,” he said.

She smiled a little.

“Oh, no; I am not scared. I believe you think me even more foolish than I actually am.”

“No, I don’t,” said Mercer. “If I did, I shouldn’t say what I am going to say. As it is, you are not to answer till you have counted up to fifty. Is that a bargain?”

“Yes,” she said, beginning to feel more curious than afraid.

“Here goes then,” said Brett Mercer. “I want a wife, and I want you. Will you marry me? Now, shut your eyes and count!”

But Sybil disobeyed him. She opened her eyes wide, and stared at him in breathless amazement.

Mercer stared back with absolute composure.

“I’m in dead earnest,” he told her. “Never made a joke in my life. Of course, you’ll refuse me. I know that. But I shan’t give you up if you do. If you don’t marry me, you won’t marry any one else, for I’ll lick any other man off the ground. I come first with you now, and I mean to stay first.”

He stopped, for amazement had given place to something else on her face. She looked at him queerly, as if irresolute for a few seconds; but she no longer shrank from meeting his eyes. And then quite suddenly she broke into her funny little laugh.

“Amusing, is it?” he said.

She turned sharply away, with one hand pressed to her mouth, obviously struggling with herself.

At last:

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to laugh really–really. Only you–you’re such a monster, and I’m such a shrimp! Please don’t be vexed with me!”

She put out her hand to him, without turning.

He did not take it at once. When he did, he drew her round to face him. There was an odd restraint about the action, determined though it was.

“Well?” he said gruffly. “Which is it to be? Am I to go to the devil, or stay with you?”

She looked down at the great hand that held her. She was still half laughing, though her lips quivered.

“I couldn’t possibly marry you yet,” she said.

“No. To-morrow!” said Mercer.

She shook her head.

“Not even then.”

“Listen!” he said. “If you won’t marry me at once you will have to come with me without. For I am going up-country to see my farms, and I don’t mean to leave you here.”

“Can’t I wait till you come back?” she said.

“What for?”

He leaned forward a little, trying to peer under her drooping lids. She was trembling slightly.

“I think you forget,” she said, “that–that we hardly know each other.”

“How are we to get any nearer if I’m up-country and you’re here?” he said.

She looked at him unwillingly.

“You may change your mind when you have had time to think it over,” she said, colouring deeply.

“I’ll take the risk,” said Mercer. “Besides”–she saw his grim smile for an instant–“I’ve been thinking of nothing else since I met you.”

She started a little.

“I–I had no idea.”

“No,” he said; “I saw that. You needn’t be afraid of me on that account. It ought to have the opposite effect.”

“I am not afraid of you,” she said, with a certain dignity. “But I, too, should have time for consideration.”

“A woman doesn’t need it,” he asserted. “She can make up her mind at a moment’s notice.”

“And is often sorry for ever afterwards,” she said smiling faintly.

He thrust out his jaw, as if challenging her.

“You think I shall make you sorry?”

“No,” she answered. “But I want to be quite sure.”

“Which is another reason for marrying me to-morrow,” he said. “I’m not going to let you wait. It’s only a whim. You weren’t created to live alone, and there is no reason why you should. I am here, and you will have to take me.”

“Whether I want to or not?” she said.

“Don’t you want to?” he questioned.

She was silent.

He lifted the hand he held and looked at it. He spanned her wrist with his finger and thumb.