He _shall_ do it!" "What!" she exclaimed, "do you think the gift of discovery runs in the family ?" Arnold made a plunge.
"I wish it did!" he said.
Blanche looked the picture of astonishment.
"Why ?" she asked.
"If you could see in my face what Sir Patrick saw--" He had only to finish the sentence, and the thing was done.

But the tender passion perversely delights in raising obstacles to itself.

A sudden timidity seized on Arnold exactly at the wrong moment.

He stopped short, in the most awkward manner possible.
Blanche heard from the lawn the blow of the mallet on the ball, and the laughter of the company at some blunder of Sir Patrick's.

The precious seconds were slipping away.