ywhere you wish, as long as we go together and alone. Only we must
get back in two weeks."

"Don, dear!"

"I mean it," he went on earnestly. "I want to marry you to-morrow or
next day. Your trunks are all packed, and you needn't unpack them.
We'll spend all the time we can spare in the mountains, and then come
back--to the house. It's all ready for you, Frances. It's waiting for
you."

She stared about in fear lest some one might be overhearing his
rambling talk.

"Don," she gasped.

"Nora has cleaned every room," he ran on, "and I've saved a hundred
dollars for the trip. And Farnsworth is going to give me a raise
before December. He hasn't promised it, but I know he'll do it,
because I'm going to make good. You and I together will make good."

She did not answer. She could not. She was left quite paralyzed. He
was leaning forward expectantly.

"You'll come with me?"

It was a full minute before she could answer. Then she said:--

"It's so impossible, Don."

"Impossible?"

"One doesn't--doesn't get married that way!"

"What does it matter how one gets married?" he answered.

"What would people say?"

"I don't care what they'd say."

"You mustn't get like that, Don, dear," she chided him. "Why, that's
being an anarchist or something, isn't it?"

"It's just being yourself, little girl," he explained more gently.
"The trouble with us is, we've thought too much about other people
and--other things. It's certain that after we're married people aren't
going to worry much about us, so why should we let them worry us
before that? No, it's all our own affair. As for the salary part of
it, we've been wrong about that, too. We don't need so much as we
thought we did. Why, do you know you can get a good lunch downtown for
fifteen cents? It's a fact. You can get an egg sandwich, a chocolate
eclair, and a cup of coffee for that. I know the place. And I've
figured that, with the house all furnished us, we can live easy on
twenty-five a week until I get more. You don't need your ten thousand
a year. It's a fact, Frances."

She did not answer, because she did not quite know what he was talking
about. Yet, her blood was running faster. There was a new light in
his eyes--a new quality in his voice that thrilled her. She had never
heard a man talk like this before.

"You'll have to trust me to prove all those things," he was running
on. "You'll have to trust me, because I've learned a lot this summer.
I've learned