"I thought you would ask me some time, Dick, but I did not want you to quite ask me until you came from college. We are only boy and girl, you know."
"I am quite satisfied, Mary," he said, in that quiet, gentle voice of his which made you like him so much,—and so a compact was made, which both of them faithfully kept.
Frank had not dared to say half so much to Edith; but the next morning, when he was saying good bye to them all, and it came to her turn, he looked her steadily in the face as she took his hand, and, moved by a sudden impulse, she put up her face to be kissed as Mary had done, and as he gravely kissed her, he said in a low tone, designed for her ear alone,—
"I am going to do my very best, Edith, and what I do will be for your sake."
These were sweet words to the little maiden; but Frank received by the next morning's post a little Testament from her, with these words written on the fly-leaf—
"Not altogether for my sake, Frank," and the half rebuke was of great service to Frank.
And so, God be with them!
THE END.
LONDON:
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL,
QUEEN VICTORIA STREET.