"You think, Leila, that
it teases me to be called a boy by your ladyship. I think it is because
you remember what a boy once said to you here--right here."
"What do you mean?" She knew very well what he meant, but quickly
repenting of her feminine fib, said, "Oh, I do know, but I wanted to
forget--I wanted to pretend to forget, because you know what friends we
have been, and it was really so foolish."
He had been lying at her feet; now he rose slowly. "You are not like my
Leila to-day."
"Oh, John!"
"No--and it is hard, because I am going away--and--it will not be
pleasant to think how you are changed."
"I wish you wouldn't say such things to me, John."
"I had to--because--I love you. If I was a boy when I was, as you say,
silly, I was in earnest. It was nonsense to ask you, to say you would
marry me some day. It wasn't so very long ago after all; but I agree with
you, it _was_ foolish. Now I mean to make no such proposal."
"Please, John." She looked up at him as he stood over her so grave, so
earnest--and so like Uncle Jim. For the time she got the fleeting
impression of this being a man.
He hardly heard her appeal. "I want to say now that I love you." For a
moment the 'boy's will, the wind's will,' blew a gale. "I love you and I
always shall.
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