"Let me get it for you," he said, hastily pushing back his chair, and
awkwardly entangling his foot in her dress, so that when she rose she
stumbled backward, and would have fallen but for the arm he quickly
passed around her.
Something in the touch of that quivering form completed the work of
temptation, and he held it for an instant while she said to him:
"Please, let me go, sir!"
"No, Lucy, I can't let you go; I want you to stay with me."
Instantly the drooping head was uplifted, and Lucy's eyes looked into
his with such a wistful, pleading, wondering look, that Arthur saw, or
thought he saw, his duty plain, and, gently touching his lips to the
brow glistening so white within their reach, he continued:
"There is a way to stop the gossip and make it right for me to see
you. Promise to be my wife, and not even Captain Humphreys will say
aught against it."
Arthur's voice trembled a little now, for the mention of Captain
Humphreys had brought a thought of Anna, whose brown eyes seemed for
an instant to look reproachfully upon that wooing. But Arthur had gone
too far to retract--he had committed himself, and now he had only to
wait for Lucy's answer.
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