"I may be a little hasty, Miss Van Klecek," he said, again slightly lessening his distance from her, "but I have had the presumption to imagine that I—that you—that I———"
"Please not to come any nearer," said Getty, hastily, as her suitor's chair exhibited still further signs of locomotion.
"Ah! certainly not, if you wish it," replied the lover very blandly; "I mean, not at present; but allow me to hope that the time will come, when you—when I—that is to say, when both of us———"
Tom stopped, for Gertrude had risen, and had taken a step toward the door, with much appearance of agitation.
"I fear you do not understand me," he said hastily.
"I fear I do," she replied quickly and sensibly, "although it is rather your manner than your words which express your meaning."
"Stay, then, and be assured that I am quite in earnest."
"I do not question your sincerity, Mr. Vrail———
"That I have come here to offer you this hand," he continued, extending certainly a very clean one, which bore evident marks of recent scrubbing for its present service, but which the heiress exhibited no haste to accept.
She had attained sufficient proximity to the door to feel certain that her retreat could not be cut off, and her self-possession having in some degree returned, she listened respectfully, and replied politely, although with a tone of sadness.
"I will spare you any further avowal of your feelings, Mr. Vrail," she began.
"Do not think of such a thing, dear Gertrude," he replied, still unawakened from his hallucination, "I am proud to make profession of my love for you."
"Will you listen to me a moment before I go?"
"An hour! a week! nay, for ever!"
"I shall not detain you a minute."
"I assure you I am in no hurry!"
"I am. You are laboring under a mistake. We are nearly strangers to each other, and you have scarcely the right to address me in the way you have done; but if it were otherwise I have only
