"Never could guess," said Toby. "It's much more important that you should stop here if you want to."
"Don't be foolish—but, oh, Toby, when my time comes let me come down here again. It was here we were engaged; let it be here you take your first-born in your arms. I do want that."
She turned to him with the light of certain motherhood in her eyes, a thing so wonderful that the souls of all men are incomplete until they have seen it, and her beauty and her love for him made him bow his head in awe. His wholesome humble soul was lost in an amazement of love and worship.
"It shall be so, Toby?" she asked, with a woman's delight in learning how unnecessary that question was. "Will my lord grant the request of his handmaiden?"
"Ah, don't," he said suddenly. "Don't say that, even in jest."
"Then will you, Toby?" she asked.
"If my queen wills it," said he.
"Nor must you say that, even in jest," she said.
"I don't; I say it in earnest—in deadly earnest. It is the truest thing in the world."
"In the world? Oh, Toby, a big place! Then that is settled."