"You do not think?"
"I was going on to explain. He never has asked me. But he has said that which makes me know that he wishes me to be his wife."
"What has he said? When did he say it?"
Again she paused. But again she answered with straightforward simplicity. "Just before you came in, he said—; I don't know what he said; but it meant that."
"You told me he had been here but a minute."
"It was but very little more. If you take me at my word in that way, of course you can make me out to be wrong, mamma. It was almost no time, and yet he said it."
"He had come prepared to say it."
"How could he,—expecting to find you?"
"Psha! He expected nothing of the kind."
"I think you do him wrong, mamma. I am sure you are doing me wrong. I think his coming was an accident, and that what he said was—an accident."