"He ... he is happy, too," came her reply, somewhat haltingly. "Of course, just at first ... oh, please don't ask me, Don. But now he is content, for he knows that I ... I couldn't ever have been anything else to him, because I loved ano.... I loved you."
"He knows that? Rose, you didn't tell him?"
"Yes, I did," she answered, bravely. "And let me tell you, sir, that it is lucky for you that ... that you asked me; for, if you hadn't, you would have had my big brother to deal with!"
And what the cricket heard then, has nothing to do with this story.
CHAPTER XXXV
THE HALLOWED MOON
They were to be married early in September—just a month from the day when Smiles so nearly gave her life to save another's.
During the days which must pass before she became Donald's in the full trinity of body, mind and soul, his family kept her at Manchester-by-the-Sea and each hour bound her more closely to the heart of each.