I don't know what to think
of it."
Bennett, who had been listening intently, remained silent for a
few moments. Then, putting down his tea cup, he moved over nearer
to Elaine and bent over her.
"Elaine," he said in a low tone, his remarkable eyes looking
straight into her own, "you must know that I love you. Then give
me the right to protect you. It was your father's dearest wish, I
believe, that we should marry. Let me share your dangers and I
swear that sooner or later there will be an end to the Clutching
Hand. Give me your answer, Elaine," he urged, "and make me the
happiest man in all the world."
Elaine listened, and not unsympathetically, as Bennett continued
to plead for her answer.
"Wait a little while--until to-morrow," she replied finally, as if
overcome by the recollections of her weird dream and the
unexpected sequel of his proposal.
"Let it be as you wish, then," agreed Bennett quietly.
He took her hand and kissed it passionately.
An instant later Aunt Josephine returned. Elaine, unstrung by what
had happened, excused herself and went into the library.
She sank into one of the capacious arm chairs, and passing her
hand wearily over her throbbing forehead, closed her eyes in deep
thought. Involuntarily, her mind travelled back over the rapid
succession of events of the past few weeks and the part that she
had thought, at least, Kennedy had come to play in her life.
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