son for not wanting to
speak, but I am plaguey glad you spoke to me, for I should have been
pretty well cast down if you hadn't, and to-morrow I have to go away."

Annie leaned toward him. "Go away!"

"Yes; I have to go to California about that confounded Ames will case.
And I don't know exactly where, on the Pacific coast, the parties I have
to interview may be, and I may have to be away weeks, possibly months.
Annie darling, it did seem to me a cruel state of things to have to go
so far, and leave you here, living in such a queer fashion, and not
know how you felt. Lord! but I'm glad you had sense enough to call me,
Annie."

"I couldn't let you go by, when it came to it, and Tom--"

"What, dear?"

"I did an awful mean thing: something I never was guilty of before.
I--listened."

"Well, I don't see what harm it did. You didn't hear much to your or
your sisters' disadvantage, that I can remember. They kept calling you
'dear.'"

"Yes," said Annie, quickly. Again, such was her love and thankfulness
that a great wave of love and forgiveness for her sisters swept over
her. Annie had a nature compounded of depths of sweetness; nobody
could be mistaken with regard to that. What they did mistake was the
possibility of even sweetness being at bay at times, and remaining
there.

"You don't mean to speak to anybody else?" asked Tom.

"Not for a year, if I can avoid it without making comment which might
hurt father."

"Why, dear?"

"That is what I cannot tell you," replied Annie, looking into his face
with a troubled smile.

Tom looked at her in a puzzled way, then he kissed her.

"Oh, well, dear," he said, "it is all right. I know perfectly well you
would do nothing in which you were not justified, and you have spoken to
me, anyway, and that is the main thing. I think if I had been obliged
to start to-morrow without a word from you I shouldn't have cared a hang
whether I ever came back or not. You are the only soul to hold me here;
you know that, darling."

"Yes," replied Annie.

"You are the only one," repeated Tom, "but it seems to me this minute as
if you were a whole host, you dear little soul. But I don't quite like
to leave you here living alone, except for Effie."

"Oh, I am within a stone's-throw of father's," said Annie, lightly.

"I admit that. Still, you are alone. Annie, when are you going to marry
me?"

Annie regarded him with a clear, innocent look. She had lived such a
busy life that her m