ust know what I mean, Miss
Nowell. Marian, I think you can guess what is coming. I told you last
night how sweet Lidford had been to me."

"Yes," she said, with a bright inquiring look in her eyes. "But what have
I to do with that?"

"Everything. It is you who have made the little country village my
paradise. O Marian, tell me that it has not been a fool's paradise! My
darling, I love you with all my heart and soul, with an honest man's
first and only love. Promise that you will be my wife."

He took the hand that lay loosely on her lap, and pressed it in both his
own. She withdrew it gently, and sat looking at him with a face that had
grown suddenly pale.

"You do not know what you are asking," she said; "you cannot know.
Captain Sedgewick is not my uncle. He does not even know who my parents
were. I am the most obscure creature in the world."

"Not one degree less dear to me because of that, Marian; only the dearer.
Tell me, my darling, is there any hope for me?"

"I never thought----" she faltered; "I had no idea----"

"That to know you was to love you. My life and soul, I have loved you
from the hour I first saw you in Lidford church. I was a doomed man from
that moment, Marian. O my dearest, trust me, and it shall go hard if I do
not make your future life a happy one. Granted that I am ten years--more
than ten years--your senior, that is a difference on the right side. I
have fought the battle of life, and have conquered, and am strong enough
to protect and shelter the woman I love. Come, Marian, I am waiting for a
word of hope."

"And do you really love me?" she asked wonderingly. "It seems so strange
after so short a time."

"I loved you from that first evening in the church, my dear."

"I am very grateful to you," she said slowly, "and I am proud--I have
reason to be proud--of your preference. But I have known you such a short
time. I am afraid to give you any promise."

"Afraid of me, or of yourself, Marian?"

"Of myself."

"In what way?"

"I am only a foolish frivolous girl. You offer me so much more than I
deserve in offering me your love like this. I scarcely know if I have a
heart to give to any one. I know that I have never loved anybody except
my one friend and protector my dear adopted uncle."

"But you do not say that you cannot love me, Marian. Perhaps I have
spoken too soon, after all. It seems to me that I have known you for a
lifetime; but that is only a lover's fancy. I seem almo