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 never occur again. Don't you understand? I should like to come and see you, like other people—bring you flowers, and boxes of candy, and try to persuade you to like me. When a man's in earnest and really cares, it's a shame when he isn't even allowed a chance."

"Let's be sensible, Mr. Marsden," I said. "You know very well I cannot ask you to come and see me; and if you are going to talk like that, I'm not sure I would if I could. We're very conventional people here, and these short cuts of yours across the social grass are alarming."

"I love you," he said, with an awfully genuine flash of his eyes. "That's what I meant all the time—that's the crudest part of it; and these people here have ostracized me so successfully that they've made it an impertinence for me to say it!"