'So you like it, Chris?'
'I will never, never part with it, Jessie. But I want a piece of ribbon; may I have that piece round your neck?
'Take it off yourself, Chris.'
What a bungler I was, and how long it took me to remove the piece of simple ribbon, need not here be described. I know that while my trembling fingers were about her neck, Jessie, in reply to a look, said, 'Yes, you may, Chris;' and that I kissed her.
'And now, Chris,' she said, 'I want to speak to you about something that is troubling me very much. When you said the other night that uncle Bryan was an atheist, were you in earnest?'
'I said what I believed,' I answered with an uneasy feeling.
'And he is an atheist?'
'I am afraid he is, Jessie.'
'Has he ever told you so?'
'Oh, no; there are some things that one scarcely dares to speak of.'