"Vivian?" asked Beatrice involuntarily.
Major Ruck laughed. "With his father. My dear young lady, I am old enough to have Vivian for a son. Paslow, Alpenny and myself were at Rugby a very long time ago. I am old enough to be your father, and yet," said the Major insinuatingly, as he leaned forward with a smile, "I have come to offer myself as a husband."
"Mr. Alpenny told me before he died that you were likely to do so," said Beatrice, quite at her ease, and mistress of the situation; "but I cannot guess, Mr. Ruck----"
"Major Ruck--retired!" said that gentleman.
"I cannot guess, Major," replied Beatrice, making the amendment, "why you should wish to marry me, whom you have never seen."
"Pardon me. I have seen your photograph, which was shown to me by my late friend, poor Alpenny. Also," said the Major, with emphasis, "one day I came to The Camp, and Alpenny showed you to me."
"That is impossible," said Beatrice, wondering if he was lying. "I have always been at The Camp, and I never saw you."
"You were asleep, my dear young lady--asleep in a hammock under the trees. My friend Alpenny," added the Major, smiling, "was good enough to offer me a sight of the Sleeping Beauty. I fell in love with you on the spot. Mr. Alpenny, as we were old friends, was not averse to my asking you to be my wife; and, indeed, but for his untimely death, I should have come down to propose in a more reasonable way."
"No way can be reasonable in this case, Major. You say you know me?"
"From a sight of you in the hammock, from your photograph, and from the fact that my late friend, poor Alpenny, gave me a very vivid conception of your charming character."