But Miss Farrar was not deceived. She knew him, not only as a persistent
and irrepressible lover, but as one full of guile, adroit in tricks,
fertile in expedients. He was one who could not take "No" for an
answer--at least not from her. When she repulsed him she seemed to grow
in his eyes only the more attractive.
"It is not the lover who comes to woo," he was constantly explaining,
"but the lover's _way_ of wooing."
Miss Farrar had assured him she did not like his way. She objected to
being regarded and treated as a castle that could be taken only by
assault. Whether she wished time to consider, or whether he and his
proposal were really obnoxious to her, he could not find out. His policy
of campaign was that she, also, should not have time to find out. Again
and again she had agreed to see him only on the condition that he would
not make love to her. He had promised again and again, and had failed to
keep that promise. Only a week before he had been banished from her
presence, to remain an exile until she gave him permission to see her at
her home in New York. It was not her purpose to return there for two
weeks, and yet here he was, a beggar at her gate.
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