"A million and a half," she said. "What a large sum it seems. What one could do with a half, a quarter, a tenth of it!"
"What would you do, dearest?" he asked.
She laughed softly.
"I think that I would first buy you a present. And then I'd have the Hall repainted. No, I'd get the terrace rails and the portico mended; and yet, perhaps, it would be better to have the inside of the house painted and papered. You see, there are so many things I could do with it, that it's difficult to choose."
"You shall do 'em all," he said, putting his arm round her. "See here,
Ida, I've been thinking about ourselves—"
"Do you ever think of anything else? I don't," she said, half unconsciously.
—"And I've made up my mind to take the bull by the horns—"
"Is that meant for my father or yours?"
"Both," he replied. "We've been so happy this last fortnight—is it a fortnight ago since I got you to tell me that you cared for me? Lord! it seems a year sometimes, and at others it only seems a minute!—that we haven't cared to think of how we stand; but it can't like this forever, Ida. You see, I want you—I want you all to myself, for every hour of the day and night instead of for just the few minutes I've the good luck to snatch. Directly this affair of my governor's is finished I shall go to him and tell him I'm the happiest, the luckiest man in the world; I shall tell him everything exactly how we stand—and ask him to help us with your father."
Ida sighed and looked grave.