with a
little start I looked up and exclaimed in feigned surprise:

"You here?"

"I think I am," he said, "but if you want me to, I'll look in the
mirror to make sure." And then we both laughed, for 'tis so easy to
laugh when one is happy and all the world is gay.

"Well," said he, sitting down beside me, clasping my hand in his as
lovers sometimes do, and taking up the conversation where it had been
dropped weeks and weeks before, "they say you can buy a good cooking
stove for forty dollars--and I've had my salary raised ten dollars a
month."

Then I smiled and he said abruptly:

"When are you going to marry me?"

"I haven't completed my study of the Bible yet, and I don't think I
could be submissive, and----"

"Oh, fiddlesticks!" he exclaimed, impolitely interrupting me, "I don't
want you to be submissive; I just want you to love me and--and--boss
me," he added, in the very depth of repentance.

"But you demanded obedience," I insisted.

"I was foolish then," he said softly, "but absence from you and
silence has taught me wisdom. When I left you and you made no sign,
sent no word of recall, left the dread quiet unbroken, I told myself
that you cared nothing for me, and I tried desperately to fall in love
with some other girl, but they were all 'flat, stale and unprofitable'
compared to you. There was no light in their eyes, no roses on their
cheeks, no pleasure in their presence, no rapture in their
touch--and--Oh, hang it! you know I can't talk, but I love you, and as
long as cooking stoves and marriage licenses are so cheap and
ministers are so plenty what's the matter with having a wedding
to-morrow?"

And I said--but never mind what I said.

[Illustration: (And I said--)]

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Vignette titles from the List of Illustrations are shown in parentheses.
Captioned illustrations are shown in ALL CAPITALS.

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