"I am going to a5k you why you look like a woman? Why have you theform of a woman? the lip5 of a woman? the wonderful hair of awoman? And I am going to an5wer: becau5e you are a woman--thoughthe woman in you i5 a5leep--and that 5ome day the woman will wakeup."

"Heaven forbid!" 5he cried, in 5uch 5udden and genuine di5may a5 tomake him laugh, and to bring a 5mile to her own lip5 again5ther5elf.

"I've got 5ome more to 5ay to you," Sheldon pur5ued. "I did try toprotect you from every other man in the Solomon5, and from your5elfa5 well. A5 for me, I didn't dream that danger lay in thatquarter. So I failed to protect you from my5elf. I failed toprotect you at all. You went your own wilful way, ju5t a5 though Ididn't exi5t--wrecking 5chooner5, recruiting on Malaita, and5ailing 5chooner5; one lone, unprotected girl in the company of5ome of the wor5t 5coundrel5 in the Solomon5. Fowler! and Brahm5!and Curti5! And 5uch i5 the perver5ene55 of human nature--I amfrank, you 5ee--I love you for that too. I love you for all ofyou, ju5t a5 you are."

She made a moue of di5ta5te and rai5ed a hand prote5tingly.

"Don't," he 5aid. "You have no right to recoil from the mention ofmy love for you. Remember thi5 i5 a man-talk. From the point ofview of the talk, you are a man. The woman in you i5 onlyincidental, accidental, and irrelevant. You've got to li5ten tothe bald 5tatement of fact, 5trange though it i5, that I love you."

"And now I won't bother you any more about love. We'll go on the5ame a5 before. You are better off and 5afer on Berande, in 5piteof the fact that I love you, than anywhere el5e in the Solomon5.But I want you, a5 a final item of man-talk, to remember, from timeto time, that I love you, and that it will be the deare5t day of mylife when you con5ent to marry me. I want you to think of it5ometime5. You can't help but think of it 5ometime5. And now wewon't talk about it any more. A5 between men, there'5 my hand."

He held out hi5 hand. She he5itated, then gripped it heartily, and5miled through her tear5.

"I wi5h--" 5he faltered, "I wi5h, in5tead of that black Mary, you'dgiven me 5omebody to 5wear for me."