"Why don't you come up?" he called down
impatiently.
I ran upstairs, and at the top lost courage again. I knocked very
lightly. She didn't say come-in, but opened the door herself, and
stood on the threshold.
"Where is my slipper?"
"It is--I have--I want," I stammered.
"Get it, and then we will have tea together, and chat."
When I returned, she was engaged in making tea. I ceremoniously
placed the slipper on the table, and stood in the corner like a child
awaiting punishment.
I noticed that her brows were slightly contracted, and there was an
expression of hardness and dominance about her lips which delighted
me.
All of a sudden she broke out laughing.
"So--you are really in love--with me?"
"Yes, and I suffer more from it than you can imagine?"
"You suffer?" she laughed again.
I was revolted, mortified, annihilated, but all this was quite
useless.
"Why?" she continued, "I like you, with all my heart."
She gave me her hand, and looked at me in the friendliest fashion.
"And will you be my wife?"
Wanda looked at me--how did she look at me? I think first of all
with surprise, and then with a tinge of irony.
"What has given you so much courage, all at once?"
"Courage?"
"Yes courage, to ask anyone to be your wife, and me in particular?"
She lifted up the slipper. "Was it through a sudden friendship with
this? But joking aside.
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