There!" He looked at her in amazement, and would have believed that she was making fun of him had it not been for the warm blood that suddenly suffused her cheeks.
"Do you mean that ?" he asked unsteadily.

"Why ?" "To put a stop to all the nasty gossip of the beach.

That's a pretty good reason, isn't it ?" The temptation was strong enough and sudden enough to make him waver, but all the disgust came back to him that was his when he lay in the grass fighting gnats and cursing adventure, and he answered,-- "No; it is worse than no reason at all.

I don't care to marry you as a matter of expedience--" "You are the most ridiculous creature!" she broke in, with a flash of her old-time anger.

"You talk love and marriage to me, very much against my wish, and go mooning around over the plantation week after week because you can't have me, and look at me when you think I'm not noticing and when all the time I'm wondering when you had your last square meal because of the hungry look in your eyes, and make eyes at my revolver- belt hanging on a nail, and fight duels about me, and all the rest--and--and now, when I say I'll marry you, you do yourself the honour of refusing me." "You can't make me any more ridiculous than I feel," he answered, rubbing the lump on his forehead reflectively.