(seq. 38)

my wife May you shall be loved as faithfully as any woman has
been loved. His face & voice were so eager that it required all her
strength of will to Monday resist them. O But she forced herself to say I did
not mean that there are reasons that you don't anything about why
we cannot be anything but friends to each other. He looked at her
for a second with all the light gone out of his face. Are you sure he
said asked at last. Yes I am sure she said at last replied. May would not admit
to herself how unhappy she felt when he had gone. I am
not going to cry or do anything absurd she said it is much better so.
She had promised to dine at the Saunders the next evening
& she tried to think about that & what she should wear
but she found it almost impossible to put from her mind
Harry's words, & his disappointment. [Jim?] Saunder's manner was
unusually grave & she had an intuitive feeling that she
was going to say something to her that she did not wish to
hear that day. She tried to avoid him but [Jim?] was determined
when he took the trouble to be & he found an opportunity while
his father & mother were deep in a game of chess & Mabel
was playing waltzes to say without abruptly preface May I've
been meaning for a long while long time to ask you to marry me
will you do it? May felt more like crying than anything
else for some unaccountable reason. It was hard work for
her to keep the tears back but she managed ^to say Oh [Jim?] you must
give me time to think. Of course if you want it he said but I
should have known right away what my answer would be if it had
been you who had asked me. You see May I know I'm not much like