And Ludovic has never asked me."
"Is he too shy?" persisted Anne. Since Theodora was in the mood,
she meant to sift this puzzling affair to the bottom.
Theodora dropped her work and looked meditatively out over the green
slopes of the summer world.
"No, I don't think it is that. Ludovic isn't shy. It's just his way--
the Speed way. The Speeds are all dreadfully deliberate. They spend
years thinking over a thing before they make up their minds to do it.
Sometimes they get so much in the habit of thinking about it that they
never get over it--like old Alder Speed, who was always talking
of going to England to see his brother, but never went, though there
was no earthly reason why he shouldn't. They're not lazy, you know,
but they love to take their time."
"And Ludovic is just an aggravated case of Speedism," suggested Anne.
"Exactly. He never hurried in his life. Why, he has been
thinking for the last six years of getting his house painted.
He talks it over with me every little while, and picks out
the colour, and there the matter stays. He's fond of me,
and he means to ask me to have him sometime. The only question is--
will the time ever come?"
"Why don't you hurry him up?" asked Anne impatiently.
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