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 cried eagerly. “You would only share her with me, dear Mrs. Leroy! Do you think—could she—it is possible?”

“Lady is an unusual girl,” she said evenly, but with something gone out of her warm, gay voice. “She has never cared for young people. I know that she admires you greatly. While I cannot deny that I should prefer less difference than lies between your ages, it would be folly in me to fail to recognize the desirability of the connection in every other way. Whatever her decision—and the matter rests entirely with her—my daughter and I are honored by your proposal, Colonel Driscoll.”

She might have been reading a carefully prepared address: her eyes never wavered from the wall in front—it was as if she saw her words there.

“Then—then will you ask her?”

She stared at him now.

“You mean that you wish me to ask her to marry you?”