Page:Harold Titus--Timber.djvu/24

16 "Then he might come across properly."

The girl put a hand to his shoulder and shook him.

"Then you will, John! You have everything to gain, nothing to lose."

He nodded. "That's about the size of it. I don't want that sort of start, I've had my share of roughing it in the army; but it's only for a few weeks and it's a good gamble—if I make good."

"Of course you will," Marcia said.

Taylor turned toward her impulsively and put both arms around her small body, looking down into her moonlit face.

"Will you go with me, Marcia?" he asked.

"Go with you? You mean—?"

He nodded. "Marry me now. Let's start together. Let's begin as though this really were the beginning, and we were going to make a fortune by the strength of my back—Marcia, will you?" His voice was unsteady with eagerness and he drew her closer, struggling to hold her face to the moonlight, but she ducked it out of his sight, buried it against his shoulder and he felt a shudder travel her body.

"Marcia!"

"Don't, John!"

"Marcia, what is it?" He forced her chin upward and called her name again when he saw tears in her eyes.

"What is it?"

She shook her head and pressed knuckles against her lips, looking away. "It's the same thing you tried to explain to your father," she whispered, voice husky, words rapid. "Don't you see, that, John? Don't you see that to begin that way is asking something of me that you have