Page:E Nesbit - Man and Maid (1906).djvu/284

 get the Victoria Cross, or become Prime Minister?”

“Don’t sneer,” said she; “it doesn’t become you at all. You’ve no idea how horrid you look when you’re sneering. Why don’t you? Oh! but it’s no good! By the way, what a charming cover Housman has designed for your Veils and Violets! It’s a dear little book. Some of the verses are quite pretty.”

“Go on,” said he, “rub it in. I know I haven’t done much yet; but there’s plenty of time. And how can one do any good work when one is for ever sticking up one’s heart like a beastly cocoanut for you to shy at? If you’d only marry me, Sybil, you should see how I would work!”

“May I refer you to my speech—not the last one, but the one before that.”

He laughed; then he sighed.

“Ah, my Pretty,” he said, “it was all very well, and pleasant enough to be scolded by you when I could see you every day; but now”

“How often,” she asked calmly, “have I told you that you must not call me that? It was all very well when we were children; but now”