, till the latter became impatient.

"What is if you have got to say, child? Do make haste, for I want to go
up-stairs."

With a great jerk of resolution, Maggie said:

"Mamma, Frank Buxton has asked me to marry him."

She hid her face in her mother's lap for an instant; and then she lifted it
up, as brimful of the light of happiness as is the cup of a water-lily of
the sun's radiance.

"Maggie--you don't say so," said her mother, half incredulously. "It can't
be, for he's at Cambridge, and it's not post-day. What do you mean?"

"He came this morning, mother, when I was down at the well; and we fixed
that I was to speak to you; and he asked if he might come again for tea."

"Dear! dear! and the milk all gone sour? We should have had milk of our
own, if Edward had not persuaded me against buying another cow."

"I don't think Mr. Buxton will mind it much," said Maggie, dimpling up, as
she remembered, half unconsciously, how little he had seemed to care for
anything but herself.

"Why, what a thing it is for you!" said Mrs. Browne, quite roused up from
her languor and her head-ache. "Everybody said he was engaged to Miss
Erminia. Are you quite sure you made no mistake, child? What did he say?
Young men are so fond of making fine speeches; and young women are so silly
in fancying they mean something. I once knew a girl who thought that a
gentleman who sent her mother a present of a sucking-pig, did it as a
delicate way of making her an offer. Tell me his exact words."

But Maggie blushed, and either would not or could not. So Mrs. Browne began
again:

"Well, if you're sure, you're sure. I wonder how he brought his father
round. So long as he and Erminia have been planned for each other! That
very first day we ever dined there after your father's death, Mr. Buxton as
good as told me all about it. I fancied they were only waiting till they
were out of mourning."

All this was news to Maggie. She had never thought that either Erminia or
Frank was particularly fond of the other; still less had she had any idea
of Mr. Buxton's plans for them. Her mother's surprise at her engagement
jarred a little upon her too: it had become so natural, even in these last
two hours, to feel that she belonged to _him_. But there were more discords
to come. Mrs. Browne began again, half in soliloquy:

"I should think he would have four thousand a-year. He did not tell you,
love, did he, if they had still that bad property in the cana