It depends a good deal on what you have to say to me." Ida started a little, though she had expected something of this kind.
Still, she recovered her serenity quickly, and in a moment she looked at him inquiringly with calm eyes.
"I didn't mean to say anything for some while yet, but this thing has forced my hand," he said.

"You see, I must let them know during the next day or two whether I'm going." He broke off for a moment, and his manner became diffident.
"Miss Stirling," he added, "I think I fell in love with you the second or third time I saw you, if not the first, and as I have seen you rather often since then, you can, perhaps, imagine what I feel now.
I'm afraid there is no very strong reason why you should look kindly on such a man as I am, but I came here to-night to ask if you would marry me." Ida quietly met his gaze.

The man was well-favored physically, honest, courteous and considerate, and in many ways she liked him.

Indeed, she wondered with a certain uneasiness how far she had allowed the latter fact to become apparent, for it was quite another matter to marry him, as she now realized.
"Is this offer quite spontaneous ?" she asked.
Kinnaird flushed a little, but she thought the more of him for the candor with which he answered her.
"In the first place, I believe my mother put the thing into my head," he admitted.

"After that, it got hold of me--and I was rather glad that my people were apparently satisfied that it did.