"I hope I shall always bring happiness to you, Truxton," she murmured, faint with the joy of loving.
"You will make me very unhappy if you don't marry me to-morrow."
"I couldn't think of it!"
"I don't ask you to think. If you do, you may change your mind completely. Just marry me without thinking, dearest."
"I will marry you, Truxton, when we get to New York," she said, but not very firmly. He saw his advantage.
"But, my dear, I'm tired of travelling."
It was rather enigmatic. "What has that to do with it?" she asked.
"Well, it's this way: if we get married in New York we'll have to consider an extended and wholly obligatory wedding journey. If we get married here, we can save all that bother by bridal-tripping to New York, instead of away from it. And, what's more, we'll escape the rice-throwing and the old shoes and the hand-painted trunk labels. Greater still: we will avoid a long and lonely trip across the ocean on separate steamers. That's something, you know."
"We could go on the same steamer."
"Quite so, my dear. But don't you think it would be nicer if we went as one instead of two?"
"I suppose it would be cheaper."
"They say a fellow saves money by getting married."
"I hate a man who is always trying to save money."
"Well, if you put it that way, I'll promise never to save a cent. I'm a horrible spendthrift."
"Oh, you'll have to save, Truxton!"
"How silly we are!" he cried in utter joyousness. He held her close for a long time, his face buried in her hair. "Listen, darling: won't you say you'll be my wife before I leave Graustark? I want you so much. I can't go away without you."
She hesitated. "When are you going, Truxton? You--you haven't told me."
It was what he wanted. "I am going next Monday," he said promptly. As a matter of fact, he had forgotten the day of the week they were now living in.
"Monday? Oh, dear!"
"Will you?"
"I--I must cable home first," she faltered.
"That's a mere detail, darling. Cable afterward. It will beat us home by three weeks. They'll know we're coming."
"I must ask John, really I must, Truxton," she protested faintly.
"Hurray!" he shouted--in a whisper. "He is so desperately in love, he won't think of refusing anything we ask. Shall we set it for Saturday?"
They set it for Saturday without consulting John Tullis, and then fell to discussing him. "He is very much in love with her," she said wistfully.
"And she loves him, Loraine. They will be very happy. She's wonderful."