"And I am so fond of supper!" Flossy said. "It was very unkind of you to keep me here."
"But I am so fond of you," he retorted, "that it was very good of you to stay."
"I've a great mind to eat you," she said.
"Do. I know I shall like it, and I'm sure I'd taste better than pop-corn."
"But I haven't promised any thing," Flossy said, speaking, as usual, quite independently of the subject in hand. "We're not engaged until you've seen father."
An hour or two later, when Burleigh was preparing to retire, his silver lucky-penny dropped to the floor.
"Ah, ha!" he cried, tossing it into the air. "You were wrong, after all, old fellow, unless you wanted to bully me into proposing; and, by George! I think that's the only way I got pluck for it."
And the great honest fellow took himself to bed, and lay awake thinking of Flossy with a simple humility that was very touching. A glow of love and happiness enveloped him like a rosy cloud; and when at last he fell asleep it was to dreams as passionately pure as had been his waking thoughts, and, like them, centring about the little maiden who had that night promised to become his wife.
Before the guests at Mrs. Toxteth's unmasked, Will encountered Putnam, and endeavored to discover his identity.
"You are evidently dumb," he said at last, after having vainly tried to make Tom speak. "'Tis a virtue more to be commended in the other sex."