"If he is like you, he may marry her.... I am glad he is your brother."
The answering fire burned in his face; she met his eyes, and twice her own fell before their message.
He leaned forward, elbows on the table, hot face between his hands; a careless attitude for others to observe, but a swift glance warned her what was coming--coming in a low, casual voice, checked at intervals as though he were swallowing.
"You are the most splendid girl I ever knew." He dropped one hand and picked up a flower that had slipped from her finger-bowl. "You are the only person in the world who will not think me crazy for saying this. We're a headlong race. Will you marry me?"
She bent her head thoughtfully, pressing her mouth to her clasped fingers. Her attitude was repose itself.
"Are you offended?" he asked, looking out of the window.
There was a slight negative motion of her head.
A party of assorted travellers rose from their table and passed them, smiling discreetly; the old minister across the aisle mused in his coffee-cup, caressing his shaven face with wrinkled fingers. The dining-car grew very still.
"It's in the blood," he said, under his breath; "my grandparents eloped; my father's courtship lasted three days from the time he first met my mother--you see what my brother has done in twenty-four hours.... We do things more quickly in these days.... Please--_please_ don't look so unhappy!"
"I--I am not unhappy.... I am willing to--hear you. You were saying something about--about--"
"I--think so. Wait until those people pass!"
He waited, apparently hypnotized by the beauty of the car ceiling. Then: "Of course, if you were not going to be my sister-in-law to-morrow, I'd not go into family matters."
So he gave her a brief outline of his own affairs, and she listened with bent head until there came the pause which was her own cue.
"Why do you tell me this?" she asked, innocently.
On common ground once more, she prepared for battle, but to her consternation she found the battle already ended and an enemy calmly preparing for her surrender.
"But when--when do you propose to--to do this?" she asked, in an unsteady voice.
"I love you enough to wait a million years--but I won't. I always expected to fall in love; I've rather fancied it would come like this when it came; and I swore I'd never let the chance slip by. We're a headlong family--but a singularly loyal one. We love but once in our lifetime; and when we love we know it."