"Don't you think you might wait until you're twenty-one ?" he asked.
"Why ?" she said, with a laugh.

"I'm just twenty--do you really think I shall be any wiser in twelve months?
Of course I shan't!" "You don't know that," he replied.

"You may be--a great deal wiser." "But what has that got to do with it ?" she persisted.

"Is there any reason why I shouldn't be told--everything ?" She was looking at him with a certain amount of demand--and Ransford, who had always known that some moment of this sort must inevitably come, felt that she was not going to be put off with ordinary excuses.

He hesitated--and she went on speaking.
"You know," she continued, almost pleadingly.