"You're quite right," he said. "I am in love with her. Furthermore, I asked her to marry me this morning."

"Good Lord!" said Francis. "And do you mean to say she refused you?"

"She didn't accept me," said Michael. "We--we adjourned."

"But why on earth didn't she take you?" asked Francis.

All Michael's old sensitiveness, his self-consciousness of his plainness, his awkwardness, his big hands, his short legs, came back to him.

"I should think you could see well enough if you look at me," he said, "without my telling you."

"Oh, that silly old rot," said Francis cheerfully. "I thought you had forgotten all about it."

"I almost had--in fact I quite had until this morning," said Michael. "If I had remembered it I shouldn't have asked her."

(Editor：ability)