t
you think they notice your absence and wonder where you are?"

"Shouldn't think so," he replied. "Besides, I don't care if they do.
All my worry is that I can't come to you oftener. Every time I leave
you I count up the hours that must pass before I see you again. But I
expect most, if not all, of the visitors will be off presently. Most of
'em have been there the regulation fortnight; a good many come
backwards and forwards; they're the city men, the money men. My father
is closeted with them for hours every day--that big scheme of his seems
to be coming off satisfactorily. It's a railway to some place in
Africa, and all these fellows--the Griffenbergs, and Beltons, that fat
German baron, Wirsch, and the rest of them, are in it. Heaven knows why
my father wants to worry about it for. I heard one of them say that he
calculated to make a million and a half out of it. As if he weren't
rich enough!"

"A million and a half," she said. "What a large sum it seems. What one
could do with a half, a quarter, a tenth of it!"

"What would you do, dearest?" he asked.

She laughed softly.

"I think that I would first buy you a present. And then I'd have the
Hall repainted. No, I'd get the terrace rails and the portico mended;
and yet, perhaps, it would be better to have the inside of the house
painted and papered. You see, there are so many things I could do with
it, that it's difficult to choose."

"You shall do 'em all," he said, putting his arm round her. "See here,
Ida, I've been thinking about ourselves--"

"Do you ever think of anything else? I don't," she said, half
unconsciously.

--"And I've made up my mind to take the bull by the horns--"

"Is that meant for my father or yours?"

"Both," he replied. "We've been so happy this last fortnight--is it a
fortnight ago since I got you to tell me that you cared for me? Lord!
it seems a year sometimes, and at others it only seems a minute!--that
we haven't cared to think of how we stand; but it can't like this
forever, Ida. You see, I want you--I want you all to myself, for every
hour of the day and night instead of for just the few minutes I've the
good luck to snatch. Directly this affair of my governor's is finished
I shall go to him and tell him I'm the happiest, the luckiest man in
the world; I shall tell him everything exactly how we stand--and ask
him to help us with your father."

Ida sighed and looked grave.

"I know, dearest," he said, answering the look