You must have seen my interest in her. You must have known why I stayed
on and on. But it was, it is, all so uncertain. I wanted to ask your
permission to speak my mind to her."

"Are you quite sure you know your own mind?" asked Miss Forsythe,
defensively.

"Sure--sure; I have never had the feeling for any other woman I have for
her."

"Margaret is a noble girl; she is very independent," suggested Miss
Forsythe, still avoiding the point.

"I know. I don't ask you her feeling." Mr. Lyon was standing quietly
looking down into the coals. "She is the only woman in the world to me.
I love her. Are you against me?" he asked, suddenly looking up, with a
flush in his face.

"Oh, no! no!" exclaimed Miss Forsythe, with another access of timidity.
"I shouldn't take the responsibility of being against you, or--or
otherwise. It is very manly in you to come to me, and I am sure I--we
all wish nothing but your own happiness. And so far as I am concerned--"

"Then I have your permission?" he asked, eagerly.

"My permission, Mr. Lyon? why, it is so new to me, I scarcely realized
that I had any permission," she said, with a little attempt at
pleasantry. "But as her aunt--and guardian, as one may say--personally
I should have the greatest satisfaction to know that Margaret's destiny
was in the hands of one we all esteem and know as we do you."

"Thank you, thank you," said Mr. Lyon, coming forward and seizing her
hand.

"But you must let me say, let me suggest, that there are a great many
things to be thought of. There is such a difference in education, in all
the habits of your lives, in all your relations. Margaret would never be
happy in a position where less was accorded to her than she had all her
life. Nor would her pride let her take such a position."

"But as my wife--"

"Yes, I know that is sufficient in your mind. Have you consulted your
mother, Mr. Lyon?"

"Not yet."

"And have you written to any one at home about my niece?"

"Not yet."

"And does it seem a little difficult to do so?" This was a probe that
went even deeper than the questioner knew. Mr. Lyon hesitated, seeing
again as in a vision the astonishment of his family. He was conscious of
an attempt at self-deception when he replied:

"Not difficult, not at all difficult, but I thought I would wait till I
had something definite to say."

"Margaret is, of course, perfectly free to act for herself. She has a
very ardent nature, but at the same time