ick pursed up his lips for a
whistle, but thought better of it, and fell to twisting and untwisting
the ends of his sandy moustache.

Nan's downcast eyes revealed nothing. But if Dick could only have seen
the happy look in them! What eloquence could ever have been so dear to
her as that clear rough-and-ready statement of her lover's feelings
for her? "There is not another girl in England that I would have for a
wife." Could anything surpass the beauty of that sentence? Oh, how
manly, how true he was, this Dick of hers!

"Oh, indeed! I am to say nothing, am I?" returned Mr. Mayne, with
exquisite irony. "My son is to dictate to me; and I am to be silent!
Oh, you young fool!" he muttered under his breath; but then for the
moment words seemed to fail him.

In spite of the wrath that was boiling within him, and to which he did
not dare give vent in Nan's presence, in spite of the grief and
disappointment that his son's defiance had caused him, Dick's bearing
filled him with admiration and amazement.

This boy of his was worth something, he thought. He had a clear head
of his own, and could speak to some purpose. Was a likely young fellow
like this to be thrown away on that Challoner girl? Poor Nan! Pretty
and blooming as she looked, Mr. Mayne felt almost as though he hated
her. Why had she come between his boy and him? Had he a dozen sons,
that he could spare one of them? Was not Dick his only one,--the son
of his right hand, his sole hope and ambition? Mr. Mayne could have
wept as these thoughts passed through his mind.

It was at this moment that Nan thought it right to speak. Dick had had
his say, but it was not for her to be silent.

"Mr. Mayne, please listen to me a moment," she said, pleadingly. "No;
I must speak to your father," as Dick, much alarmed, tried to silence
her. "He must not think hard things of us, and misunderstand us."

"No, dear; indeed you had better be silent!" implored Dick, anxiously;
but Nan for once turned a deaf ear to him.

"I must speak," she persisted. "Mr. Mayne, it is quite true what Dick
says: we have been together all our lives, and have grown to care for
each other. I cannot remember the time,"--the tears coming into her
bright eyes--"when Dick was not more to me than a brother; it is all
of such long standing, it is far, far too late to stop it now."

"We shall see about that, Miss Nancy," muttered Mr. Mayne, between his
teeth; but the girl did not seem to hear him.

"Dick to