on in its
full significance. It was just a touch of hysteria. He joined her and
laughed heartily as well.

"Aha!" he cried, between laughs: "That's a splendid sign. Splendid!
I've always been told that girls CRY when they're proposed to."

"Sure, that's what I'm doin'," gasped Peg. "I'm cryin'--laughin'."

Alaric suddenly checked his mirth and said seriously:

"'Course ye must know, cousin, that I've nothin' to offer you except a
life-long devotion: a decent old name--and--my career--when once I get
it goin'. I only need an incentive to make no end of a splash in the
world. YOU would be my incentive." Peg could hardly believe her ears.
She looked at Alaric while her eyes danced mischievously.

"Go on!" she said. "Go on. Sure, ye're doin' fine!"

"Then it's all right?" he asked fervently.

"Faith! I think it's wondherful."

"Good. Excellent. But--there are one or two little things to be settled
first."

Even as the victorious general, with the capitulated citadel, it was
time to dictate terms. Delays in such matters, Alaric had often been
told, were unwise. A clear understanding at the beginning saved endless
complications afterwards.

"Just a few little things," he went on, "such as a little
OBEDIENCE--that's most essential. A modicum of care about ORDINARY
things,--for instance, about dress, speech, hair, et ectera--and NO
'Michael.'"

"Oh!" cried Peg dejectedly, while her eyes beamed playfully:

"Sure, couldn't I have 'Michael'?"

"No," he said firmly. It was well she should understand that once and
for all. He had never in a long experience, seen a dog he disliked more.

"Oh!" ejaculated Peg, plaintively.

Prepared to, at any rate, compromise, rather than have an open rupture,
he hastened to modify his attitude:

"At least NOT in the HOUSE."

"In the STABLES?" queried Peg.

"We'd give him a jolly little kennel somewhere, if you really wanted
him, and you could see him--say TWICE a day."

He felt a thrill of generosity as he thus unbent from his former rigid
attitude.

"Then it wouldn't be 'love me love my dog'?" quizzed Peg.

"Well, really, you know, one cannot regulate one's life by proverbs,
cousin. Can one?" he reasoned.

"But 'Michael' is all I have in the wurrld, except me father. Now, what
could ye give me instead of him?"

Here was where a little humour would save the whole situation. Things
were becoming strained--and over a dog.

Alaric would use his SUBTLER humour--keen as br