For a minute there wasn’t a sound.  Then—­

“I told you I should come,” Miss Patty said, in her haughtiest manner.  “You need not trouble to be disagreeable.”

“Disagreeable!” he repeated.  “I am abject!”

“I don’t understand,” she said.  “But you needn’t explain.  It really does not matter.”

“It matters to me.  I had to do this to-night.  I promised you I would make good, and if I had let this pass—­Don’t you see, I couldn’t let it go.”

“You can let me go, now.”

“Not until I have justified myself to you.”

“I am not interested.”

I heard him take a step or two toward her.

“I don’t quite believe that,” he said in a low tone.  “You were interested in what I said here this afternoon.”

“I didn’t hear it.”

“None of it?”

“Not—­not all.”

“I spoke, you remember, about your sister, and about Dick—­” he paused.  I could imagine her staring at him in her wide-eyed way.

“You never mentioned them!” she said scornfully and stopped.  He laughed, a low laugh, boyish and full of triumph.

“Ah!” he said.  “So you did hear!  I’m going to say it again, anyhow.  I love you, Patty.  I’m—­I’m mad for you.  I’ve loved you hopelessly for so long that to-night, when there’s a ray of hope, I’m—­I’m hardly sane.  I—­”

“Please!” she said.

“I love you so much that I waken at night just to say your name, over and over, and when dawn comes through the windows—­”

“You don’t know what you are saying!” she said wildly.  “I am—­still—­”

“I welcome the daylight,” he went on, talking very fast, “because it means another day when I can see you.  If it sounds foolish, it’s—­it’s really lots worse than it sounds, Patty.”

The door opened just then, and Doctor Barnes’ voice spoke from the step.

“I say,” he complained, “you needn’t—­”

“Get out!” Mr. Pierce said angrily, and the door slammed.  The second’s interruption gave him time, I think, to see how far he’d gone, and his voice, when he spoke again, was not so hopeful.

“I’m not pleading my cause,” he said humbly, “I know I haven’t any cause.  I have nothing to offer you.”

“You said this afternoon,” Miss Patty said softly, “that you could offer me the—­the kind of love that a woman could be proud of.”

She finished off with a sort of gasp, as if she was shocked at herself.  I was so excited that my heart beat a tatoo against my ribs, and without my being conscious of it, as you may say, the pantry door opened about an inch and I found myself with an eye to the crack.

They were standing facing each other, he all flushed and eager and my dear Miss Patty pale and trembly.  But she wasn’t shy.  She was looking straight into his eyes and her blessed lips were quivering.

“How can you care?” she asked, when he only stood and looked at her.  “I’ve been such a—­such a selfish beast!”