She clapped her hands. "Neither am I. It is too stupid, isn't it? I _don't_ want to marry the man I ought to marry. I'd rather take chances with a man who attracts me and who is attracted by me.... There was, in the old days--before everybody married by machinery--something not altogether unworthy in being a siren, wasn't there?... It's perfectly delightful to think of your seeing me out here on the rocks, and then instantly plunging into the waves and tearing a foaming right of way to what might have been destruction!" Her flushed, excited face between its clustering curls looked straight into his. "It _was_ destruction," he said. His own voice sounded odd to him. "Utter destruction to my peace of mind," he said again. "You--don't think that you love me, do you?" she asked. "That would be too--too perfect a climax.... _Do_ you?" she asked curiously. "I--think so." "Do--do you _know_ it?" He gazed bravely at her: "Yes." She flung up both arms joyously, then laughed aloud: "Oh, the wonder of it! It is too perfect, too beautiful! You really love me? Do you? Are you _sure_?" "Yes.... Will you try to love me?" "Well, you know that sirens don't care for people.... I've already been engaged two or three times.... I don't mind being engaged to you." "Couldn't you care for me, Flavilla?" "Why, yes. I do.... Please don't touch me; I'd rather not. Of course, you know, I couldn't really love you so quickly unless I'd been subjected to one of those Destyn-Carr machines. You know that, don't you? But," she added frankly, "I wouldn't like to have you get away from me. I--I feel like a tender-hearted person in the street who is followed by a lost cat----" "What!" "Oh, I _didn't_ mean anything unpleasant--truly I didn't. You know how tenderly one feels when a poor stray cat comes trotting after one----" He got up, mad all through. "_Are_ you offended?" she asked sorrowfully. "When I didn't mean anything except that my heart--which is rather impressionable--feels very warmly and tenderly toward the man who swam after me.... Won't you understand, please? Listen, we have been engaged only a minute, and here already is our first quarrel. You can see for yourself what would happen if we ever married." "It wouldn't be machine-made bliss, anyway," he said. That seemed to interest her; she inspected him earnestly. "Also," he added, "I thought you desired to take a sportsman's chances?" "I--do." "And I thought you didn't want to marry the man you ought to marry." "That is--true." "Then you certainly ought not to marry me--but, will you?" "How can I when I don't--love you." "You don't love me because you ought not to on such brief acquaintance.... But _will_ you love me, Flavilla?" She looked at him in silence, sitting very still, the bright hair veiling her cheeks, the fish's tail curled up against her side. "_Will_ you?" "I don't know," she said faintly. "Try." "I--am." "Shall I help you?"