She looked at him mildly. "What did she say about him?"
"Only that he was the man who put up the money."
"Why didn't you tell me that this morning?"
"I suppose because there was so much else to say. We should have come round to it in time. I did tell you everything but his name."
"I got the impression from you this morning that it was some millionaire Johnny who'd come to your father's aid by advancing the sum in the ordinary way of business. I didn't understand that it was a comparatively poor chap who was cleaning himself out to come to yours."
In wording his phrase he purposely went beyond the warrant, in order to rouse her to denial, or perhaps to indignation. But she said only:
"Did Drusilla say it was to come to my aid?"
"She didn't say it--exactly. I gathered that it was what she thought."
She astonished him by saying, simply: "I think so, too."
"Extraordinary! Do you mean to say he dropped out of a clear sky?"
"I must answer that by both a yes and a no. He did drop out of a clear sky just lately; but I'd known him before."
"Ah!" His tone was that of a cross-examiner dragging the truth from an unwilling witness. He put his questions rapidly and sharply, as though at a Court-martial. "So you'd known him before! Did you know him _well?_"
"_I_ didn't think it was well; but apparently he did, because he asked me to marry him."
Ashley bounded. "Who? That--that cowboy!"
Her elbows rested on the arm of her chair; the tip of her chin on the back of her bent fingers. Without taking her eyes from his she inclined her head slowly in assent.
"That is," he hastened to say, in some compunction, "your father took it. We must keep the distinction--"
"No; I took it. Papa was all ready to decline it. He had made up his mind--"
"Do you mean that the decision to accept it rested with you?"
"You didn't--" He hesitated, stammered, and grew red. "You didn't--" he began again. "You'll have to excuse the question.... I simply _must_ know, by Jove!... You didn't _ask_ him for it?"
She rose with dignity. "If you'll come in I'll tell you about it. We can't talk out here."
He came up the portico steps to the level on which she was standing. "Tell me that first," he begged.
In the French window, as she was about to enter the room, she half turned round. "I don't think it would bear that construction; but it might. I'd rather you judged for yourself. I declined it at first--and then I said I'd take it. I don't know whether you'd call that asking. But please come in."