Page:Comin' Thro' the Rye (1898).djvu/383

Rh turned away, thank heaven! or I could never pick them up, never. A thought strikes me; and I smile to myself as I scramble up, and into a chair, and lift up one of the volumes between my two feet and hold it towards him.

"Paul," I say, in a very small voice, "here it is!"

He turns quickly, but, on seeing the fashion in which my offering is made, he reseats himself.

"That is not the way, Nell," he says; and is it fancy, or is there a keen disappointment in his voice? I lower the book to the ground, and consider for a little while, then I jump up and kneel down by his side.

"Paul," I say, wistfully, "won't you let me off, dear? I'll never throw any more at you, big or little, never!"

He turns and looks at me.

"I misunderstood you, child," he says, "I thought you would have done it; but never mind."

"And so I will," I say, heartily. "I would pick up a whole library full rather than you should look at me like that." And I stoop down to gather up those nasty, nasty little volumes, but Paul snatches me in his arms.

My plucky little girl!" he cries; "after all she has not disappointed me. Do you know, Nell, that I had made up my mind just now that, with all our love for each other, we should never hit it off if you were too proud to own yourself in the wrong?"

"Only I did not pick them up, after all," I say, slyly. "And how do you know I ever intended to?"

"Did you not?" he asks, pinching my cheek; "I know better!"

"If I have come out of the ordeal well, sir, so have not you! A more pig-headed, self-willed, obstinate person I never met; and how you could bring yourself to behave in such a way to a lady"