"I wish we were going off with her--maybe to Singapore or Nagasaki," Carl said, slipping his arm through hers, as they balanced on the stringpiece of the wharf, sniffing like deer at the breeze, which for a moment seemed to bear, from distant burgeoning woods, a shadowy hint of burning leaves--the perfume of spring and autumn, the eternal wander-call. "Yes!" Ruth mused; "and moonlight in Java, and the Himalayas on the horizon, and the Vale of Cashmir." "But I'm glad we have this. Blessed, it's a day planned for lovers like us." "Carl!" "Yes. Lovers. Courting. In spring. Like all lovers." "Really, Carl, even spring doesn't quite let me forget the _convenances_ are home waiting." "We're not lovers?" "No, we----" "Yet you enjoy to-day, don't you?" "Yes, but----" "And you'd rather be loafing on a dirty wharf, looking at a tramp steamer, than taking tea at the Plaza?" "Yes, just now, perhaps----" "And you're protesting because you feel it's proper to----" "It----" "And you really trust me so much that you're having difficulty in seeming alarmed?" "Really----" "And you'd rather play around with me than any of the Skull and Bones or Hasty Pudding men you know? Or foreign diplomats with spade beards?" "At least they wouldn't----" "Oh yes they would, if you'd let them, which you wouldn't.... So, to sum up, then, we _are_ lovers and it's spring and you're glad of it, and as soon as you get used to it you'll be glad I'm so frank. Won't you?" "I will not be bullied, Carl! You'll be having me married to you before I can scream for help, if I don't start at once." "Probably." "Indeed you will not! I haven't the slightest intention of letting you get away with being masterful." "Yes, I know, blessed; these masterful people bore me, too. But aren't we modern enough so we can discuss frankly the question of whether I'd better propose to you, some day?" "But, boy, what makes you suppose that I have any information on the subject? That I've ever thought of it?" "I credit you with having a reasonable knowledge that there are such things as marriage." "Yes, but----Oh, I'm very confused. You've bullied me into such a defensive position that my instinct is to deny everything. If you turned on me suddenly and accused me of wearing gloves I'd indignantly deny it." "Meantime, not to change the subject, I'd better be planning and watching for a suitable day for proposing, don't you think? Consider it. Here's this young Ericson--some sort of a clerk, I believe--no, don't _think_ he's a university man----You know; discuss it clearly. Think it might be better to propose to-day? I ask your advice as a woman." "Oh, Carl dear, I think not to-day. I'm sorry, but I really don't think so." "But some time, perhaps?" "Some time, perhaps!" Then she fled from him and from the subject. They talked, after that, only of the sailors that loafed on West Street, but in their voices was content.