“Tom Galway.
“P.S.—I have the forget-me-nots still.”
Miss Browne perused this effusion with a very high colour, and equally mingled portions of emotion, astonishment, and rapture! Now and then she paused to re-read a sentence, as if she could not believe her eyes. An offer of marriage! To go to India to be Mrs. Tom Galway! Her brain was in a whirl. What an unexpected summons! What would the Robinsons say, and the Fishers, and the Smiths? What bliss! what triumph! Visions of a superb trousseau, of India, elephants, palm trees, wedding-cake, and a sea voyage, all flashed through her mind. Suddenly she looked over at her pretty, pale niece, who was pouring out the coffee, and said rather sharply—
“Lily?”
“Yes, aunt?” lifting a pair of lovely brown eyes.
“You remember an officer who was here the summer before last; he was in the Pioneers, and paid me a great deal of attention—Tom Galway?”
Lily nodded; she had now become extremely red.
“I have just had a letter from him.”
“A letter!” she echoed in a faint voice.
“Yes—containing an offer of marriage.”