Stocks she was radically intolerant.
A moment of pique might send her to his side, but the position was
unnatural and could not be maintained. Even now Lewis was in her
thoughts. Fragments of his odd romantic speech clove to her memory.
His figure--for he showed to perfection in his own surroundings--was so
comely and gallant, so bright with the glamour of adventurous youth,
that for a moment this prosaic young woman was a convert to the coloured
side of life and had forgotten her austere creed.
Mr. Stocks went about his duty with praise-worthy thoroughness. For
the fiftieth time in a week he detailed to her his prospects. When he
had raised a cloud-built castle of fine hopes, when he had with manly
simplicity repeated his confession of faith, he felt that the crucial
moment had arrived. Now, when she looked down the same avenue of
prospect as himself, he could gracefully ask her to adorn the fair scene
with her presence.
"Alice," he said, and at the sound of her name the girl started from a
reverie in which Lewis was not absent, and looked vacantly in his face.
He took it for maidenly modesty.
"I have wanted to speak to you for long, Alice. We have seen a good
deal of each other lately, and I have come to be very fond of you. I
trust you may have some liking for me, for I want you to promise to be
my wife."
He told his love in regular sentences.
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