he scramble
of pretty girls for the place beside him, to sit quietly and watch her
among her flowers.

"I'm getting old--old!" he said to himself, but he said it with a smile.

For he knew that no boy's heart ever beat more swiftly, no boy's tongue
ever sought more excitedly to find the right words. But when he faced
her a little doubt chilled him: she was so calm and complete, in
her sunny, busy, balanced life, that he feared to disturb that sweet
placidity. With an undercurrent of fear, a sudden realization that he
had no more the blessed egotism of youth to drive him on, he walked
beside her, outwardly content, at heart a little solitary. At some light
question he turned and faced her.

"You could not have all the greenhouses, but there could be plenty of
flowers," he said pleadingly.

"Flowers? Where?" she asked.

"Wherever we lived," he answered. "And oh, Mary, I think we could be
happy together! Don't say no!" as she shrank a little. "Don't, Mary, for
heaven's sake! I care too much--I care terribly. I am too old a man to
care so much and--lose.... There, there, my dear girl, never mind. I
can bear it, of course. Only I didn't know I'd planned it all out so,
and--But never mind. I was going to have a bay-window full of--"

He turned away from her for a moment. But her hand was on his arm.

"We can plan it out together," she said.

He knew how she would blush; he had even dared to think how directly her
clear gray eyes would meet his--her sky-ness was never hesitation--but
he had not dreamed how soft her hair could be.

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