But she shook her head.  “I should be much more afraid of taking too much from you,” she said.  “The little I could offer would never satisfy you.”

“Yes it would,” he insisted.  “I’m only asking to stand between you and trouble.  It’s all I want in life.”

Again his eyes were upon her, dark and resolute.  His hand held hers in a steady grip.  For the first time her own resolution began to falter.

“Let me write to you, Mr. Ironside,” she said at last, with a vague idea of softening a refusal that had become inexplicably hard.

“Write and say ’No’?” said Jeff.

She smiled a little, but her eyes filled with sudden tears.  “You make it very hard for me to say ‘No,’” she said.

“I would like to make it impossible,” he said.

“Even when I have told you that I can’t—­that I don’t—­love you in the ordinary way?” she said almost pleadingly.

“I don’t want to be loved in the ordinary way,” he answered doggedly.

“I should be a perpetual disappointment to you,” she said.

“I would rather have even that than—­nothing,” said Jeff.

One of the tears ran over and fell upon their clasped hands.  “In fact, you want me at any price,” she said.

“At any price,” said Jeff.

She bent her head and choked back a sob.  “And no one else wants me at all,” she whispered.

He stooped towards her.  Perhaps for her peace of mind it was as well that she did not see the sudden fire that blazed in his deep-set eyes as he did so.

“So you’ll change your mind,” he said, after a moment, to the bowed head.  “You’ll have me—­you will?”

She caught back another sob and said nothing.

He straightened himself sharply.  “Miss Elliot, if it’s going to make you miserable, you had better send me away.  I’ll go—­if it’s for that.”

He would have released her hand, but it tightened very suddenly upon his.  “No, don’t go—­don’t go!” she said.

“But you’re crying,” muttered Jeff uneasily.

She gave a big gulp and raised her head.  The tears were running down her cheeks, but she smiled at him bravely notwithstanding.  “I believe I should cry—­much more—­if you were to go now,” she told him, with a quaint effort at humour.

Jeff Ironside put a strong grip upon himself.  His heart was thumping like the strokes of a heavy hammer.  “Then you’ll have me?” he said.

She put her other hand, with a very winning gesture of confidence, into his.  “I don’t see how I can help it,” she said.  “You’ve knocked down all my obstacles.  But you do understand, don’t you?  You won’t—­won’t—­”

“Abuse your trust?  No, never!” said Jeff Ironside.  “I will die by my own hand sooner.”

“Ah, I can’t help liking you,” Doris said impulsively, as if in explanation or excuse.  “You’re so big.”

“Thank you,” Jeff said very earnestly.  “And you won’t cry any more?”