Part 16 (2/2)
He hesitated, puzzled, himself, at the question.
”I never did love any one--any woman,” he confessed, ”and perhaps I never shall. But your sister seems peculiarly hard to love. Yet she is a very handsome girl and equipped with a mind of unusual calibre.”
Daisy acknowledged this description of her sister's charms. She remarked that it was strange that such a combination did not suffice to accomplish the desired result.
”There are people who do find her entertaining,” she added. ”Mr. Weil is one of them.”
”Oh, Archie!” said Roseleaf. ”He finds everything entertaining. It is nothing worth remarking. She is the exact description of his ideal in feminine face and form. He once gave me the list of the excellencies of a 'perfect woman,' and your sister has them all.”
The younger Miss Fern had her own opinions about this matter. She thought the innocent man at her side had not quite gauged the interest that Mr. Weil took in her family.
”I will make a proposition,” she said, with a light laugh, when they had talked longer upon the subject. ”I am afraid it won't seem worth much to you, and perhaps you can do better; but why can't you stay here, and--if Millie won't do--make love to _me_?”
Darkness is responsible for many things. In the light, Daisy could not have uttered those words, even in jest. There, when the sun had set and the stars were not yet on duty, she found the courage to make that suggestion.
”You are very kind,” he stammered, when he grasped her meaning. ”But I do not think it will answer. I am afraid love cannot be pushed to any point without its own initiative.”
”That is probably the case with _real_ love,” replied the girl, ”but an imitation that would serve your purpose might be evolved in the way I have indicated. For instance, you could take my hand in yours--like this--and I could lean toward you in--this way. And then, if you had sufficient courage--”
Before he dreamed of doing it, it was done! He had kissed her on her tempting lips, placed within an inch of his own.
”You are too good a scholar,” she pouted, rising to her feet in some confusion. ”I did not give you leave to do that.”
”I beg your pardon most humbly,” he answered, with intense contrition.
”May I a.s.sure you that the act was wholly involuntary and that I am very sorry for it?”
She turned and surveyed him in the shadow.
”Are--you--_very_--sorry?” she repeated.
”Yes.”
”Why?”
”Because I have made you angry.”
”Do I seem angry?”
”At least, I have injured your feelings.”
Her face was close to his again.
”Well, I forgive you. There, let us make up.”
She raised herself on the tips of her toes and kissed him twice.
All the blood in this young man's body seemed to rush to his head and then back with violence to his heart.
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