l annoy you?" he asks
quickly.

"Oh, no!" she answers in a careless tone. "You are the only one who
would be annoyed."

"My epidermis has thickened since those days," he returns, with a
laugh. "What an unlucky lot we were! Gertrude, Marcia, and I, all
crossed in our first loves! I hope Laura's fate will be better."

"Laura's prospects are very bright," says the mother, in a kind of
exultant tone. "She is engaged to a young man every way
unexceptionable, and was to have been married in the spring. She is
very anxious now--you see no one can have any money until----"

"I can soon straighten such a bother. When would she like----"

"Mr. Delancy is very impatient now. It would be mortifying to confess
that only a matter of wedding clothes stands between, when everything
else is desirable."

"Consider that settled then."

"O Floyd! Laura will be so delighted!" There is relief in her tone, as
well. A great anxiety has been dispelled.

The bell in the village up above peals off ten, and the still air
brings it down with a touch of soft mystery.

"We ought to go back to the house," confesses the mother. "And I dare
say you are tired, Floyd?"

"I have had a rather fatiguing day," he admits, though he feels as if
he could fling himself down on the fragrant grass and stay there all
night. It would not be the first time he has slept under a canopy of
stars.

They retrace their steps, and Mrs. Grandon apologizes to her guest, who
is sweetness itself, quite different from the Irene Stanwood of the
past. There is a stir, and everybody admits that it is time to retire.

Floyd intercepts Laura in the hall, and wonders he has not remarked the
flash of the diamond earlier, as she raises her plump hand.

"Mother has been telling me," he says, with a wise, curious smile. "Let
me congratulate you. To-morrow we will talk it over and arrange
everything. I will be your banker for the present. Only--are you quite
sure I shall like the young man?" And he holds her in a tender clasp.

"You cannot help it! O Floyd, how good you are, and how very, very
happy it makes me! I began to feel afraid that I had come under the
family ban."

"Dismiss all fears." He thinks her a very pretty young girl as she
stands there, and he is pleased that his return is bringing forth good
fruit so soon.

There is a pleasant confusion of good nights and good wishes, the great
hall doors are shut, and they all troop up the wide walnut staircase
quite