1
The Capture of Paul Beck
By M. McDonnell Bodkin
Chapter I
A Proposal
"Don't say 'No' right away, that's all I ask. I'm sorry I spoke. It was just like my infernal cheek-- I beg your pardon--I mean it was sheer presumption. I know well I'm not fit to tie your shoe-string. But have a little pity on a chap. I couldn't hold in; upon my soul I couldn't. Don't refuse me straight away; give me a little hope. I don't want you to say 'Yes.'"
"You don't want me to say 'Yes'?" The words came out softly one by one in a little ripple of mocking laughter. The wretched young man, who had plunged headlong into an unpremeditated proposal and was floundering beyond his depth, raised his eyes for the first time from the carpet to the face of the girl. It was a face to justify his fervour. The cheeks were flushed rosy red before his ardent gaze; the sweet, sensitive lips quivered a little, but two merry imps of laughter danced in the depths of the clear brown eyes.
A wild hope sprung to life in his heart. "Oh, Norma, is it possible? Can you? Will you?"
"But you don't want me to say 'Yes,'" more softly than before.
Then he knew, and took his answer from those sweet lips without resistance. A delicious glow of love and triumph warmed his whole being. The ordeal was over. He had won. The love his soul longed for was his for ever. Nothing else in the whole world mattered now. At that instant those two tasted the supreme bliss that makes human life worth living, even if there were nothing before or after--the entrancing ecstasy of first love which