Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 1.djvu/180

166 impatience. "I'm delighted to hear you feel anything. You haven't often seemed to me to feel."

"I feel that Jean's very charming."

She laughed again at the way he made it sound. "Is that the tone in which you think of telling her so?"

"I think she'll take it from me in any tone," Paul replied. "She has always been most kind to me; we're very good friends, and she knows what I want."

"It's more than I do, my dear! That's exactly what you said to me six months ago—when she liked you so much that she asked you to let her alone."

"She asked me to give her six months for a definite answer, and she likes me the more for having consented to do that," said Paul. "The time I've waited has improved our relations."

"Well, then, they now must have reached perfection. You'll get her definite answer, therefore, this very afternoon."

"When I present the ornament?"

"When you present the ornament. You've got it safe, I hope?"