That is why my nerves are so bad."
Travers bowed, smiling. He was rather paler than usual and the hand
which held a large bouquet of freshly cut flowers trembled as though
the shock his sudden appearance had caused Mrs. Carmichael had
recoiled on himself.
"Thank you--no," he said. "As a matter of fact, I came to bring these
for Miss Caruthers, but as she is not here I should be very grateful
if I might have a few words with you alone. I have something of
importance, which it would be perhaps better to tell you first."
"Certainly," the Colonel said, clearing his throat and settling
himself farther back in his chair. "There is no time like the
present."
Travers looked at him in troubled surprise. The elder man's tone and
attitude were those of some one confronted with a not unexpected but
unpleasant crisis.
"It concerns your ward, Colonel Carmichael," Travers said, taking the
chair offered him. "I think you must have known long ago that I cared
very dearly for her. I have come now to ask her to be my wife."
He spoke quickly and abruptly, as though to hide a powerful emotion,
and there was an instant's uncomfortable silence. Mrs. Carmichael's
head was bent over her work. She did not dislike Travers, but this
unexpected proposal upset all her plans and though it flattered her
pride in Lois, she felt disturbed and thrown out of her course.
"I think you have made a mistake, Mr. Travers," she said at last, as
her husband remained obstinately silent.
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