Ludovic would n't quarrel with anyone . You have to fight air when you spar with him . I hate to square up to a person who wo n't hit back . '' `` Theodora , '' said Anne coaxingly , `` I am going to be curious and impertinent . You can snub me if you like . Why do n't you and Ludovic get married ? '' Theodora laughed comfortably . `` That 's the question Grafton folks have been asking for quite a while , I reckon , Anne . Well , I 'd have no objection to marrying Ludovic . That 's frank enough for you , is n't it ? But it 's not easy to marry a man unless he asks you . 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 do n't think it is that . Ludovic is n't shy . It 's just his way -- the Speed way . The Speeds are all dreadfully deliberate .
They spend years thinking XXXXX a thing before they make up their minds to do it .
Since for if in of over that to unless with