“We won’t mind, will we, Tom?” put in Nellie; “I’ve a great deal to say to Tom before I go to bed.”
Biddy, with a yawn, went to her room, saying, as she closed the door: “Now, don’t sit up all night, my children.”
It amused Nellie to hear Biddy call Tom a child, for he was many years her own senior, and there could not be over a few years between her lover and Biddy.
“We’ll go to bed as soon as the sun goes down,” laughed Tom.
In fact it was dark, but Biddy had always had the habit of going to bed so early and getting up at an unusual hour that Tom was always making sport of her.
“I wanted to ask you something, Tom,” said Nellie, after Biddy’s door was tightly closed. “What makes you wear those long whiskers? Most men shave them off, don’t they?”
Tom thought a moment.
“Well, I guess it’s habit,” said he slowly. He wished he could take them off and show her the handsome face beneath, but he could not, for it would require an explanation about wearing the grizzly hair upon his face.
“Oh, you know I do not care,” replied Nellie, “for I love you just the same, but I just wondered; that’s all.”
For a long time they were silent. They were each whispering to their own heart what a happiness had been found.