t a glance at
him from under the edge of the sunshade.

"You talk as though some one was trying to cheat you out of something
you'd set your heart on," she said lightly.

"That isn't far wrong," he answered. "I have set my heart on something
and it doesn't look now as though I'd ever get it."

"Oh, I hope you will," said Eve, sincerely.

"Your saying that makes it look farther off than ever," responded Wade,
with a wry smile.

"My saying that? But why?" she asked in surprise.

"Because," he answered, after a moment's silence, "if you knew what it
is I want, I don't think you'd want me to have it, and that you don't
know proves that I'm a long way off from it."

"It sounds like a riddle," said Eve, perplexedly. "Please, Mr. Herrick,
what is the answer?"

Wade clenched his hands in his pockets and looked very straight ahead up
the road.

"You," he said.

"_Me?_" The sunshade was raised for an instant. "_Oh!_" The sunshade
dropped. They walked on in silence for a few paces. Then said Wade, with
a stolen glance at the white silken barrier:

"I hope I haven't offended you, Miss Walton. I had no more intention of
saying anything like that when we started out than--than the man in the
moon. But it's true, and you might as well know it now as any other
time. You're what I want, more than I've ever wanted anything before or
ever shall again, and you're what I'm very much afraid I won't get. I'm
not quite an idiot, after all. I know mighty well that--that I'm not the
sort of fellow you'd fall in love with, barring a miracle. But maybe I'm
trusting to the miracle. Anyhow, I'm cheeky enough to hope that--that
you may get to like me enough to marry me some day. Do you think you
ever could?"

"But--oh, I don't know what to say," cried Eve, softly. "I haven't
thought--!"

"Of course not," interrupted Wade, cheerfully. "Why should you? All I
ask is that you think about it now--or some time when you--when you're
not busy, you know. I guess I could say a whole lot about how much I
love you, but you're not ready to hear that yet and I won't. If you'll
just understand that you're the one girl in the whole darn--in the whole
world for me, Miss Walton, we'll let it go at that for the present. You
think about it. I'm not much on style and looks, and I don't know much
outside of mining, but I pick up things pretty quickly and I could
learn. I don't say anything about money, except that if you cared for me
I'd be thankful I ha