He went at it with the
same resolute simplicity that he was accustomed to throw into his
military duty, nor could she stop him in the least. His unalterable
affection; his changed and improved prospects; a staff appointment at
home if she accepted him; the Nigerian post if she refused him--these
things he put before her in the natural manly speech of a young
Englishman sorely in love, yet quite incapable of "high flights," It was
very evident that he had pondered what he was to say through the days
and nights of his exile; that he was doing precisely what he had always
planned to do, and with his whole heart in the business. She tried once
or twice to interrupt him, but he did not mean to be interrupted, and
she was forced to hear it out.
At the end she gave a little gasp.
"Oh, Hugh!" His name, given him for the first time, fell so
forlornly--it was such a breathing out of trouble and pity and
despair--that his heart took another and a final plunge downward. He had
known all through that there was no hope for him; this tone, this aspect
settled it. But she stretched out her hands to him, tenderly--appealing.
"Hugh--I shall have to tell you--but I am ashamed.
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