"No what ?" I exclaimed.
[Illustration: "'NO, SIR,' SHE SAID"] "'No' means that I will not marry you." I stood speechless.

"Of course you are thinking," she continued, "that you have never asked me to marry you.

But that isn't at all necessary.
As soon as I saw you standing there, back two weeks before your vacation is over, and when I got a good look at your face, I knew exactly what you had come for.

I was afraid when you left here that you would come back for that, so I was not altogether unprepared.

I spoke promptly so as to spare you and to make it easier for me." "Easier!" I repeated.