spunk to ask
her to marry him?"

"Maybe she asked him," suggested Dan.

The Story Girl looked as if she might tell if she would.

"I believe that WAS the way of it," I said, to draw her on.

"Not exactly," she said reluctantly. "I know all about it but I can't
tell you. I guessed part from things I've seen--and Miss Reade told me a
good deal--and the Awkward Man himself told me his side of it as we came
home last night. I met him just as I left Mr. Armstrong's and we were
together as far as his house. It was dark and he just talked on as if he
were talking to himself--I think he forgot I was there at all, once
he got started. He has never been shy or awkward with me, but he never
talked as he did last night."

"You might tell us what he said," urged Cecily. "We'd never tell."

The Story Girl shook her head.

"No, I can't. You wouldn't understand. Besides, I couldn't tell it just
right. It's one of the things that are hardest to tell. I'd spoil it if
I told it--now. Perhaps some day I'll be able to tell it properly. It's
very beautiful--but it might sound very ridiculous if it wasn't told
just exactly the right way."

"I don't know what you mean, and I don't believe you know yourself,"
said Felicity pettishly. "All that I can make out is that Miss Reade is
going to marry Jasper Dale, and I don't like the idea one bit. She is
so beautiful and sweet. I thought she'd marry some dashing young man.
Jasper Dale must be nearly twenty years older than her--and he's so
queer and shy--and such a hermit."

"Miss Reade is perfectly happy," said the Story Girl. "She thinks the
Awkward Man is lovely--and so he is. You don't know him, but I do."

"Well, you needn't put on such airs about it," sniffed Felicity.

"I am not putting on any airs. But it's true. Miss Reade and I are the
only people in Carlisle who really know the Awkward Man. Nobody else
ever got behind his shyness to find out just what sort of a man he is."

"When are they to be married?" asked Felicity.

"In a fortnight's time. And then they are coming right back to live at
Golden Milestone. Won't it be lovely to have Miss Reade always so near
us?"

"I wonder what she'll think about the mystery of Golden Milestone,"
remarked Felicity.

Golden Milestone was the beautiful name the Awkward Man had given his
home; and there was a mystery about it, as readers of the first volume
of these chronicles will recall.

"She knows all about the mystery and thinks i