Presently,
'And do you love me with all your heart, Ruth?'
'With all my heart, Charley.'
O, happiest of happy days! Ring out, sweet bells! A tenderer music is in your notes than they have ever yet been charged with!
It is twilight, and all the elderly people are in the parlour in Buttercup-square. The children are in another room, engaged in mysterious preparation.
'I think we shall have snow soon,' says Mr. Merrywhistle.
'I'm glad of it,' says Robert Truefit. 'Something seems to me wanting in Christmas, when there is no snow. When it snows, the atmosphere between heaven and earth is bridged by the purity of the happy time.'
Mrs. Silver is pleased by the remark; the firelight's soft glow is on her face. Charley enters, and bends over her chair.
'My dear mother,' he whispers.
She knows in an instant by the tremor in his voice what he is about to say. She draws him to her, so that the firelight falls on his face as well as on hers.