"No, mamma; not at the Small House. But he came there—to see me. He asked me—to be his wife. Don't move, mamma."
"My darling child! I won't move, dearest. Well; and what did you say to him? God bless him, at any rate. May God bless him, because he has seen with a true eye, and felt with a noble instinct. It is something, Grace, to have been wooed by such a man at such a time."
"Mamma, it did make me feel proud; it did."
"You had known him well before,—of course? I knew that you and he were friends, Grace."
"Yes, we were friends. I always liked him. I used not to know what to think about him. Miss Anne Prettyman told me that it would be so; and once before I thought so myself."
"And had you made up your mind what to say to him?"
"Yes, I had then. But I did not say it."
"Did not say what you had made up your mind to say?"
"That was before all this had happened to papa."
"I understand you, dearest."