And then some
unsuspected force within her impelled her to say: "Dick, if you knew
the truth--"
He caught her shoulders. "I know all the truth about you I want to
know! You're wonderful, and I love you! Will you marry me? Answer
that. That's all I want to know!"
He had checked the confession that impulsively had surged toward her
lips. Silent, her eyes wide, her breath coming sharply, she sat gazing
at him. . . . And then from out the portion of her brain where were
stored her purposes, and the momentum of her pride and determination,
there flashed the realization that she had won! The thing that Barney
and Old Jimmie had prepared and she had so skillfully worked toward,
was at last achieved! She had only to say "yes," and either of those
two plans which Barney had outlined could at once be put in operation
--and there could be no doubt of the swift success of either. Dick's
eager, trusting face was guarantee that there would come no
obstruction from him.
She felt that in some strange way she had been caught in a trap. Yes,
what they had worked for, they had won! And yet, in this moment of
winning, as elements of her vast dizziness, Maggie felt sick and
ashamed--felt a frenzied desire to run away from the whole affair. For
Maggie, cynical, all-confident, and eighteen, was proving really a
very poor adventuress.
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