Page:Crawford - Love in idleness.djvu/164

 "I should think so. All the same—I don't mean to be rude this time, Miss Trehearne—"

"Be careful!"

"No—I'll risk it. Just now when you said he had 'asked you'—you stopped short. You knew I should believe that you had been going to say that he had asked you to marry him, didn't you?"

"Oh, I know! I couldn't help it—I believe I really am a flirt, after all."

"I shouldn't like to believe it," said Lawrence, gravely.

"Nor I—either. I only wanted to see how you'd look if you thought he'd offered himself just then."

"Just then! Do you mean to say that he has offered himself at any other time?"

"Now you're rude again—only, I forgive you, because you don't know that you are. It's rude to ask such questions—so I'll be polite and refuse to answer. Not that there's any good reason why he shouldn't have asked me to marry him, you know. The fact that you hate him isn't a reason."