"May I not look straight at you?"

"No: up! up! to the window above me!"

"Won't you come and put me in the right position?"

"No. I am sure you have intellect enough to understand verbal
directions."

"Well there," I said, throwing myself into the position she wanted;
"that is easy: but how about that jolly expression? where's that to
come from?"

"Can't you imagine for a moment that you are successful, and we are
married?"

"A pretty good stretch of the imagination that!" I muttered, "as
things are at present!"

And involuntarily I brought my eyes down from the window to the
pale, delicate, abstracted face opposite me. I did not intend to
convey any reproach to her, but perhaps she thought so, for she
seemed to answer that which she took to be in my mind.

"But, Victor, you know," she said, laying down the pencil she had
just taken up, "it is in your own hands. I am willing to marry you
when you like!"

She said it very gently, but with just a touch of cold restraint