when you have seen him.'

'You wish me to?'

'I am going to write now, and say that I will marry him.'

They looked long at each other.

'You are--really?'

'Yes. I made up my mind last night.'

'But, Monica--you mustn't mind my speaking plainly--I don't think you
love him.'

'Yes, I love him well enough to feel that I am doing right in marrying
him.' She sat down by the table, and propped her head on her hand. 'He
loves me; I can't doubt that. If you could read his letters, you would
see how strong his feeling is.'

She shook with the cold induced by excitement; her voice was at moments
all but choked.

'But, putting love aside,' went on the other, very gravely, 'what do
you really know of Mr. Widdowson? Nothing whatever but what he has told
you himself. Of course you will let your friends make inquiries for
you?'

'Yes. I shall tell my sisters, and no doubt they will go to Miss Nunn
at once. I don't want to do anything rash. But it will be all right--I
mean, he has told me the truth about everything. You would be sure of
that if you knew him.'

Mildred, with hands before her on the table, made the tips of her
fingers meet. Her lips were drawn in; her eyes seemed looking for
something minute on the cloth.

'You know,' she said at length, 'I suspected what was going on. I
couldn't help.'

'Of course you couldn't.'

'Naturally I thought it was some one whose acquaintance you had made at
the shop.'

'How _could_ I think of marrying any one of that kind?'

'I should have been grieved.'

'You may believe me, Milly; Mr. Widdowson is a man you will respect and
like as soon as you know him. He couldn't have behaved to me with more
delicacy. Not a word from him, spoken or written, has ever pained
me--except that he tells me he suffers so dreadfully, and of course I
can't hear that without pain.'

'To respect, and even to like, a man, isn't at all the same as loving
him.'

'I said _you_ would respect and like him,' exclaimed Monica, with
humorous impatience. 'I don't want _you_ to love him.'

Mildred laughed, with constraint.

'I never loved any one yet, dear, and it's very unlikely I ever shall.
But I think I know the signs of the feeling.'

Monica came behind her, and leaned upon her shoulder.

'He loves me so much that he has made me think I _must_ marry him. And
I am glad of it. I'm not like you, Milly; I can't be contented with
this life. Miss Barfoot and Miss Nunn are very sensible and good