But he lacked the courage to speak and continued to hope that some day, by some miracle, she might become less superlatively neutral, less almost boyish in her way of treating him.

He threw it aside again, tempted as he was to take advantage of a chance to bribe her into becoming his wife with an offer of life.

Then too, she was only eighteen, and although he was twenty-four and in the habit of thinking of himself as a man of ripe years, he had to confess that the mere idea of marriage made him feel awfully young and scared.
And so he said nothing and went on hoping.
Joan broke the silence.

"Everything will be different when Mother comes back," she said.

"I shall live with her then, and I give you my word I'll make up for lost time.