Alpha Book

"
He laughed outright. "You are glad that I'm safely past the spooning
age?" he inquired, moving forward.
She halted: "Yes. Because I'm quite sure of you if you are; I mean that
I can always keep you for myself. Can't I?"
She was smiling and her eyes were clear and fearless, but there was a
wild-rose tint on her cheeks which deepened a little as he turned short
in his tracks, gazing straight at her.
"You wish to keep me--for yourself?" he repeated, laughing.
"Yes, Captain Selwyn."
"Until you marry. Is that it, Eileen?"
"Yes, until I marry."
"And then we'll let each other go; is that it?"
"Yes. But I think I told you that I would never marry. Didn't I?"
"Oh! Then ours is to be a lifelong and anti-sentimental contract!"
"Yes, unless _you_ marry."
"I promise not to," he said, "unless you do."
"I promise not to," she said gaily, "unless you do."
"There remains," he observed, "but one way for you and I ever to marry
anybody. And as I'm _hors de concours_, even that hope is ended.


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