"Your alternations fairly make me dizzy."
"Truly, Madge," he stammered, "a man can scarcely pay a woman a
greater compliment--"
"Oh, it's a compliment!" she interrupted.
"No," he burst out, with more than his first impetuosity; "I'm
in earnest. You, who almost read my thoughts, know that I am in
earnest--that--"
By a strong yet simple gesture she checked him.
"You scarcely realize what you are asking, Graydon," she said,
gravely. "I have no doubt your present emotion is unforced and
sincere, but it requires time to prove earnestness. You were equally
sure you were in earnest a short time since, and I had little place,
comparatively, in your thoughts."
"But I did not know you then as I do now."
"You thought you did. You had vivid impressions then about me, and
more vivid about another woman. You are acting now under another
impression, and from impulse. If I ever give myself away it shall not
be in response to an impulse."
"Madge, you misjudge me--" he began, hotly.
"I think I know most of the facts, and you know how matter-of-fact
I am. You may think I do not know what love is, but I do. It is a
priceless thing. It is a woman's life, and all that makes a true
woman's life.
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