"I thought so; and Mrs. Snow wants you to marry a millionairess?"
Jerry nodded again. "As though a millionairess would look at the likes of me!" said he, with the chuckle of a nestling.
"I wouldn't give even the plainest of them a chance!" cried Dinah jealously; "you could marry anyone with the way you have, Jerry dear."
Miss Hedge laughed gaily. "Show me the way you have, Jerry dear!" she mimicked, whereat the young lover blushed redder than the poppies.
"Oh, what rot! See here, girls both, we're all pals."
"Dinah is something more than a pal since yesterday," observed Beatrice pointedly.
"Oh, you know what I mean. Well, then father is pleased and would marry us himself, to save fees; but mother--oh, Lord!"
"Will she part us, Jerry?" demanded Dinah in a small voice.
Bashful as he was, Mr. Snow rose to the occasion, and taking her in his strong arms kissed her twice.
"That's what I think!" said he, with the air of Ajax defying the lightning. "We'll be cut off with a shilling by mother; but we shall marry all the same, and live on the bread and cheese and kisses provided by the Morning Planet."