"We are rather different, aren't we?" she said quietly. "It's very easy for you to make up _your_ mind to put out your hand and take me, as you once expressed it; that's not a very great decision for you. But it's a little different, you see--it takes a little longer--to persuade _me_ that I want to be taken. You are a very poor hand at courting, Mr. Harrigan Blood; you go out to win a woman as you would bowl down a lot of ten-pins. Don't you see?" "Lord!" he cried, angry at the fretting and time-wasting she had made him endure and would further inflict on him. "Will there ever be a woman who'll have the courage to say, 'I love you as you love me, and let's dispense with all this backing and filling, this fencing, this coquetting and vexing of the spirit!' And why? Afraid that if you give naturally you won't be prized. That's the littleness about you women; you can't conceive anything on a big scale!" "But I don't know at all that I love you!" she said quietly. His last words had brought to her mind an idea of Estelle Monk's, which she adopted instantly, as she had adopted Winona's story. Even as she began she was laughing inwardly at the effect she knew it would bring. "Win me--make me love you! You have big ideas; so have I!" He came closer, putting his arm back of her shoulder, taking her hand with impulsive suddenness, excited by this first opportunity she had permitted him. "Give me a chance, Dodo! Let me see you, like this, but be honest with me!" "I'll be perfectly honest, Harrigan," she said demurely, smiling to herself at the thrill that went through him at this first use of his name. "You are very much mistaken if you think I am like other girls. I want to be honest, and I am not afraid. We have the same ideas about marriage. I want to be a pioneer, to have the courage to lead the way! I'm not an adventuress. I shall never be ashamed of what I do! I shall never marry, but when I know that I love, I shall go to the man of my choice--openly!" He placed her hand to his lips enthusiastically. "And I shall let the world know it!" "What?" "And I shall announce it to every one!" A sudden chill came over his ardor; the hand that had gripped hers so passionately felt all at once limp and discouraged. "Are you serious?" "Absolutely! I have made up my mind to this for a long time!" "It isn't so easy," he said slowly. "All the better!" she replied enthusiastically. "It'll show we have the courage of our convictions! That's what you believe in, too, isn't it?" "H'm--yes." The conversation suddenly dropped. He began to stare out of the window, pulling at his short mustache, while Dodo, shrunk in the corner, was choking with laughter. When they arrived at Miss Pim's, she could no longer contain herself. He looked up suddenly, detecting her laughter, furious. "What!" "Oh, Harrigan Blood!" she cried, between spells of laughter. "What a chance you have missed--and you such a clever man!"