The Lost World

EXCERPT: 

Gladys was full of every womanly quality.  Some judged her to be cold and hard; but such a thought was treason.  That delicately bronzed skin, almost oriental in its coloring, that raven hair, the large liquid eyes, the full but exquisite lips,--all the stigmata of passion were there.  But I was sadly conscious that up to now I had never found the secret of drawing it forth. However, come what might, I should have done with suspense and bring matters to a head to-night.  She could but refuse me, and better be a repulsed lover than an accepted brother.
 
So far my thoughts had carried me, and I was about to break the long and uneasy silence, when two critical, dark eyes looked round at me, and the proud head was shaken in smiling reproof. "I have a presentiment that you are going to propose, Ned.  I do wish you wouldn't; for things are so much nicer as they are."
 
I drew my chair a little nearer.  "Now, how did you know that I was going to propose?" I asked in genuine wonder.