"Are you sure, Mary?" asked Mrs. Ranger, looking round at her with a comical kind of questioning glance.
"Oh, dear me, yes!" she replied.
"Well, I think I had very little difficulty in reading John's secret, which I imagine is not much of a secret to you."
"I suppose, if I cared to take the trouble, I might guess what brought him here to-night."
"No doubt of it, my dear."
"And I don't know any reason why I should hesitate to tell you. The fact is," she added, "a week ago he asked me if I would be his wife."
"And what did you tell him?"
"That it was a subject I had not thought about, and did not want to."
"Of course that was all quite true, Mary?"
"I daresay it was," she replied; "at all events, it was as true as most of the things said under such circumstances are."