"Well, I had left my hat in the house too and there I was outside in the cold, bare-headed, and presently as I walked, keeping as much as I could in unfrequented streets, it began to snow.

"'All right," I said to myself, I know what I'll do. I'll go to their house and ask her to marry me.'

"When I got there my friend's mother was not in sight and the three younger people were sitting together in the parlour of the house. I looked in through a window and then, fearing I would lose my courage if I hesitated, went boldly up and knocked on the door. I was glad anyway they had felt that after what had happened they couldn't go to the dance and when my friend came and opened the door I said nothing, but walked directly into the room where the two girls sat.

"She was on a couch in a corner, where the light from a lamp on a table in the centre of the room fell on her but faintly, and I went directly to her. My friend had followed me into the room, but now I turned to him and his sister and asked them both to go out of the room. 'Something has happened here to-night that can't very well be explained and we must be left alone together for a few minutes,' I said making a motion with my hand to where she sat on the couch.

"When they went out I followed to the door and closed it after them.

"And so there I was in the presence of the woman who was later to be my wife. There was an odd kind of droopiness to her whole person as she sat on the couch. Her body had, in a way you see, slid down from its perch on the couch and now she was lying rather than sitting. What I mean is that her body was draped on the couch. It was like a garment thrown carelessly down there. That had happened since I had come into the room. I stood before it a moment and then got down on my knees. Her face was very pale, but her eyes were looking directly into mine.

' 'I did something very strange twice this evening,' I said turning my face away so that I no longer looked into her eyes. Her eyes frightened and disconcerted me, I suppose. That must have been it. I had a certain speech to make and wanted to go through with it. There were certain words I was about to say, but now I know that at the same moment other words and thoughts, having nothing to do with what I was saying, were going on down within me.

"For one thing I knew my friend and his sister were at that moment standing just outside the door of the room waiting and listening.

"What were they thinking? Well, never mind that.

"What was I thinking myself? What was the woman to whom I was about to propose marriage thinking about?