"I'll do the rest, for I shall gladden her heart by marrying you."
"What!"
"Simply that, nothing more. Isn't that enough?"
"Far too much," replied the girl, hotly. "I don't like such jesting."
"Faith and it will prove the best joke of our lives, over which we will often laugh at our fireside hereafter. Come now, cousin, make the best of it; it is the best for you as well as for me. You know I always intended to marry you, and I have the hearty sanction of all the high contracting powers."
She stopped abruptly in the path, her face so rich in angry color that it shamed the flowers blooming in the shrubbery near.
"Mr. Whately," she said, firmly, "there is one contracting power that you have not consulted. How can you marry me when I WILL not marry you?"
"Nothing easier, pretty coz."
"But how—how?"
"Oh, that you will learn at the proper time. Everything shall go as simply, naturally and merrily as fate. The blessing of parent and guardian, the clergyman in robes, prayer-book, wedding feast—nothing shall be wanting."