“But I have done nothing, Luke,” she cried. “You are teasing me! Has the meeting taken place?”
“Yes; I have just come from it.”
“Well? Mr Bone was there I know, for he gave the boys a holiday, so that he might come.”
“Yes, he was there, evidently looking upon me as the greatest enemy he had in the world till he heard me decline the post.”
“You?—you declined the post, Luke?”
“Yes, I declined the post.”
“And you told me you loved me,” she said, reproachfully, as she drew back.
“As I do with all my heart,” he cried, taking her hand, and drawing it through his arm once more. “Sage, dear, it is because I love you so well that I have declined to take the school.”
“When it was so near,” she cried; and her tears seemed to have stolen into her voice. “And now you will go and take a school ever so far away. Oh, Luke,” she cried, piteously, “it is too bad!”
“Hush, little one,” he said, firmly. “It is not like you to talk like that. I shall not take a school far away, though I shall have to leave you. Sage, dear, I have felt that I must give up present pleasure for a future joy.”