"Oh, when will you take me there, Harry?"
"Perhaps to-morrow, dear. And now," said Harry, "that you have accomplished your surprise upon me, I have a surprise, in return, for you. You can't guess, now, what Miss Nina brought for me."
"No, indeed! What?" said Lisette, springing up; "do tell me—quick."
"Patience—patience!" said Harry, deliberately fumbling in his pocket, amusing himself with her excited air. But who should speak the astonishment and rapture which widened Lisette's dark eyes, when the watch was produced? She clapped her hands, and danced for joy, to the imminent risk of upsetting the table, and all the things on it.
"I do think we are the most fortunate people—you and I, Harry! Everything goes just as we want it to—doesn't it, now?"
Harry's assent to this comprehensive proposition was much less fervent than suited his little wife.
"Now, what's the matter with you? What goes wrong? Why don't you rejoice as I do?" said she, coming and seating herself down upon his knee. "Come, now, you've been working too hard, I know. I'm going to sing to you, now; you want something to cheer you up." And Lisette took down her banjo, and sat down in the doorway under the arch of lamarque roses, and began thrumming gayly.
"This is the nicest little thing, this banjo!" she said; "I wouldn't change it for all the guitars in the world. Now, Harry, I'm going to sing something specially for you." And Lisette sung:—
"What are the joys of white man, here,
What are his pleasures, say?