"
"To relieve our mutual boredom!" The girl's laugh sounded rather hard.
"Don't you think," she asked, after a moment, "that we should bore each
other even worse if we got engaged?"
"Oh, I don't know!" Tots laughed too--an easy, tolerant laugh. "Could
but try, eh?" he suggested. "I'm tired of this everlastin' lookin' on."
"So am I--horribly tired." The girl rose suddenly, with a movement
curiously vehement.
"But I shouldn't have thought you'd care," she said, with a touch of
bitterness. "I should have thought a bovine existence suited you."
Tots sat up deliberately and put on his hat. His manner betrayed no
resentment.
"Really?" he said, with his pleasant smile. "You see, one never knows."
He reached up a hand to her, and, wondering a little at herself, she
gave him her own to assist him to rise.
He got to his feet and stood before her--a loose-limbed, awkward figure
that towered above her, making her feel rather small.
"It's done, then, is it?" he questioned, still keeping her hand in his.
She looked up at him with a nervous laugh. Secretly she was wondering
how far he was going to carry the joke.
"Why, of course," she said. "Can you imagine any sane woman refusing
such a magnificent offer?"
Though she suffered that ring of mockery in her voice, she was still
thinking as she spoke that it would serve him right if she frightened
him well by letting him imagine that she was taking him seriously.
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