in every state of
the Union, so far as I am concerned."

"I think you've been so kind and good and thoughtful, Mark dear," said
Patty, more fondly and meltingly than she had ever spoken to him before,
"and so clever too! I do respect you for getting that good position
in Portsmouth and being able to set up for yourself at your age. I
shouldn't wonder a bit if you were a judge some day, and then what a
proud girl I shall be!"

Patty's praise was bestowed none too frequently, and it sounded very
sweet in the young man's ears.

"I do believe I can get on, with you to help me, Patty," he said,
pressing her arm more closely to his side, and looking down ardently
into her radiant face. "You're a great deal cleverer than I am, but I
have a faculty for the business of the law, so my father says, and a
faculty for money-making, too. And even if we have to begin in a small
way, my salary will be a certainty, and we'll work up together. I can
see you in a yellow satin dress, stiff enough to stand alone!"

"It must be white satin, if you please, not yellow! After having used
a hundred and ten yards of shop-worn yellow calico on myself within two
years, I never want to wear that color again. If only I could come to
you better provided," she sighed, with the suggestion of tears in her
voice. "If I'd been a common servant I could have saved something from
my wages to be married on; I haven't even got anything to be married
IN!"

"I'll get you anything you want in Portland to-morrow."

"Certainly not; I'd rather be married in rags than have you spend your
money upon me beforehand!"

"Remember to have a box of your belongings packed and slipped under the
shed somewhere. You can't be certain what your father will say or do
when the time comes for telling him, and I want you to be ready to leave
on a moment's notice."

"I will; I'll do everything you say, Mark, but are you sure that we have
thought of every other way? I do so hate being underhanded."

"Every other way! I am more than willing to ask your father, but we know
he would treat me with contempt, for he can't bear the sight of me! He
would probably lock you up and feed you on bread and water. That being
the state of things, how can I tell our plans to my own father? He never
would look with favor on my running away with you; and mother is, by
nature, set upon doing things handsomely and in proper order. Father
would say our elopement would be putting us both wrong befo