ents eloped;
my father's courtship lasted three days from the time he first met my
mother--you see what my brother has done in twenty-four hours.... We do
things more quickly in these days.... Please--_please_ don't look so
unhappy!"

"I--I am not unhappy.... I am willing to--hear you. You were saying
something about--about--"

"About love."

"I--think so. Wait until those people pass!"

He waited, apparently hypnotized by the beauty of the car ceiling.
Then: "Of course, if you were not going to be my sister-in-law
to-morrow, I'd not go into family matters."

"No, of course not," she murmured.

So he gave her a brief outline of his own affairs, and she listened with
bent head until there came the pause which was her own cue.

"Why do you tell me this?" she asked, innocently.

"It--it--why, because I love you."

On common ground once more, she prepared for battle, but to her
consternation she found the battle already ended and an enemy calmly
preparing for her surrender.

"But when--when do you propose to--to do this?" she asked, in an
unsteady voice.

"Now," he said, firmly.

"Now? Marry me at once?"

"I love you enough to wait a million years--but I won't. I always
expected to fall in love; I've rather fancied it would come like this
when it came; and I swore I'd never let the chance slip by. We're a
headlong family--but a singularly loyal one. We love but once in our
lifetime; and when we love we know it."

"Do you think that this is that one time?"

"There is no doubt left in me."

"Then"--she covered her face with her hands, leaning heavily on the
table--"then what on earth are we to do?"

"Promise each other to love."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes, I do promise, forever. Do you?"

She looked up, pale as a ghost. "Yes," she said.

"Then--please say it," he whispered.

Some people rose and left the car. She sat apparently buried in
colorless reverie. Twice her voice failed her; he bent nearer; and--

"I love you," she said.

[Illustration: "'I LOVE YOU ENOUGH TO WAIT A MILLION YEARS!'"]

A PILGRIM

I

The servants had gathered in the front hall to inspect the new
arrival--cook, kitchen-maid, butler, flanked on the right by
parlor-maids, on the left by a footman and a small buttons.

The new arrival was a snow-white bull-terrier, alert, ardent, quivering
in expectation of a welcome among these strangers, madly wagging his
whiplike tail in passionate silence.

When the mistr