I--I _could_ be your wife, couldn't I? I am
a Portman. I _am_ good enough to--to be what you want me to be, am I
not, David? You understand, don't you? Mother says I am a Portman. I am
not common and vulgar, am I, David? I--"
"I couldn't love you if you were that, Christine. You are fit to be
the wife of a--a king," he concluded eagerly.
"I have learned so much from you," she said, so softly he could barely
hear the words.
"It's the other way round. You've taught me a thousand times more than
you ever could learn from me," he protested. "I'm nobody. I've never
seen anything of life."
"You are the most wonderful person in all this world--not even
excepting the princes in the Arabian Nights."
"I'm only a boy," he said.
"I wouldn't love you if you were a man," she announced promptly.
"David, I must tell mother that--that you have kissed me. You won't
mind, will you?"
"We'll tell her together," he said readily.
"We--perhaps we'd better not tell father," she said with an effort.
The words had scarcely left her lips when a startling interruption
came. A heavy body dropped from above, landing in the middle of the
sidewalk not more than six feet from the doorway.
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