ould I have tied Garth Dalmain to my plain
face? For you know it is plain."

The doctor laughed. He was glad to make Jane a little angry. "My dear
girl," he said, "were we speaking as man to man, I should have a few
very strong things to say to you. As we are speaking as man to
woman,--and as a man who has for a very long time respected, honoured,
and admired a very dear and noble woman,--I will answer your question
frankly. You are not beautiful, in the ordinary acceptation of the
word, and no one who really loves you would answer otherwise; because
no one who knows and loves you would dream of telling you a lie. We
will even allow, if you like, that you are plain, although I know half
a dozen young men who, were they here, would want to kick me into the
street for saying so, and I should have to pretend in self-defence that
their ears had played them false and I had said, 'You are JANE,' which
is all they would consider mattered. So long as you are yourself, your
friends will be well content. At the same time, I may add, while this
dear face is under discussion, that I can look back to times when I
have felt that I would gladly walk twenty miles for a sight of it; and
in its absence I have always wished it present, and in its presence I
have never wished it away."

"Ah, but, Deryck, you did not have to have it always opposite you at
meals," insisted Jane gravely.

"Unfortunately not. But I enjoyed the meals more on the happy occasions
when it was there."

"And, Deryck--YOU DID NOT HAVE TO KISS IT."

The doctor threw back his head and shouted with laughter, so that
Flower, passing up the stairs, wondered what turn the conversation
could be taking.

But Jane was quite serious; and saw in it no laughing matter.

"No, dear," said the doctor when he had recovered; "to my infinite
credit be it recorded, that in all the years I have known it I have
never once kissed it."

"Dicky, don't tease! Oh, Boy, it is the most vital question of my whole
life; and if you do not now give me wise and thoughtful advice, all
this difficult confession will have been for nothing."

The doctor became grave immediately. He leaned forward and took those
clasped hands between his.

"Dear," he said, "forgive me if I seemed to take it lightly. My most
earnest thought is wholly at your disposal. And now let me ask you a
few questions. How did you ever succeed in convincing Dalmain that such
a thing as this was an insuperable obstacle to