no matter what his
letter told; but to be utterly dropped, that I cannot bear."

"You have not been dropped," he exclaimed, "and you shall know it. Kate,
I am going--"

"Nay, nay," she exclaimed, "you must not call me that!"

"But you call me Dickory," he said.

"True, but you are so much younger."

"Younger!" he exclaimed in a tone of contempt, not for the speaker but
for the word she had spoken. "Eleven months!"

She laughed a little laugh; her nature was so full of it that even now
she could not keep it back.

"You must have been making careful computation," she said, "but it does
not matter; you must not call me Kate, and I shall keep on calling you
Dickory; I could not help it. Now, where is it you were about to say you
were going?"

"If you think me old enough," said he, "I am going to Barbadoes in the
King and Queen. She sails to-morrow. I shall find out about everything,
and I shall get your letter, then I shall come back and bring it to
you."

"Dickory!" she exclaimed, and her eyes glowed.

There was silence for some moments, and then he spoke, for it was
necessary for him to say something, although he would have been
perfectly content to stand there speechless, so long as her eyes still
glowed.

"If I don't go," said he, "it may be long before you hear from him;
having written, he will wait for an answer."

She thought of no difficulties, no delays, no dangers. "How happy you
have made me, Dickory!" she said. "It is this dreadful ignorance, these
fearful doubts of which I ought to be ashamed. But if I get his letter,
if I know he has not deserted me!"

"You shall get it," he cried, "and you shall know."

"Dickory," said she, "you said that exactly as you spoke when you told
me that if I let myself drop into the darkness, you would be there."

"And you shall find me there now," said he; "always, if you need me, you
shall find me there!"

Dame Charter had been standing and watching this interview, her foolish
motherly heart filled with the brightest, most unreasonable dreams. And
why should she not dream, even if she knew her dreams would never come
true? In a few short weeks that Dickory boy had grown to be a man, and
what should not be dreamed about a man!

As Kate ran by the open door towards her uncle's apartments, Dame
Charter rose up, surprised.

"What have you been saying to her, Dickory?" she exclaimed. "Do you know
something we have not heard? Have you been giving her news of he