s me when I begin to think about it. Here I've got to marry
Somebody and I don't know any more than Adam's housecat who and where
that Somebody is, and he might pop from around the corner at me, any
minute! It makes the thing so much more interesting, so much more like
a big risky game of guess, when you don't know, don't you think?"

"No: it makes you miserable," said Laurence, briefly.

"But I'm not miserable at all!"

"You're not, because you don't have to be. But I am!"

"You? Why, Laurence! Why should _you_ be miserable?" Her voice lost
its blithe lightness; it was a little faint. She said hastily, without
waiting for his reply: "I guess I'd better run in. It was silly of me
to walk to the gate with you at this hour. I think Madame's calling
me. Goodnight, Laurence."

"No, you don't," said he. "And it wasn't silly of you to come, either;
it was dear and delightful, and I prayed the Lord to put the notion
into your darling head, and He did it. And now you're here you don't
budge from this spot until you've heard what I've got to say.

"Mary Virginia, I reckon you're just about the most beautiful girl in
the world. You've been run after and courted and flattered and
followed until it was enough to turn any girl's head, and it would
have turned any girl's head but yours. You could say to almost any man
alive, Come, and he'd come--oh, yes, he'd come quick. You've got the
earth to pick and choose from--but I'm asking you to pick and choose
_me_. I haven't got as much to offer you as I shall have some of these
days, but I've got me myself, body and brain and heart and soul,
sound to the core, and all of me yours, and I think that counts most,
if you care as I do. Mary Virginia, will you marry me?"

"Oh, but, Laurence! Why--Laurence--I--indeed, I didn't know--I didn't
think--" stammered the girl. "At least, I didn't dream you cared--like
that."

"Didn't you? Well, all I can say is, you've been mighty blind, then.
For I do care. I guess I've always cared like that, only, somehow,
it's taken this one short winter to drive home what I'd been learning
all my life?" said he, soberly. "I reckon I've been just like other
fool-boys, Mary Virginia. That is, I spooned a bit around every good
looking girl I ran up against, but I soon found out it wasn't the real
thing, and I quit. Something in me knew all along I belonged to
somebody else. To you. I believe now--Mary Virginia, I believe with
all my heart--that I cared for y