"Guess!" he smiled.
She did guess; and it was a shocking surmise.
"I—I have no idea," she fibbed.
"Oh, come now, hang it, look me in the eye and repeat that!"
For an instant, she looked into that roguish eye, and her worst suspicions were confirmed.
"Mr. Walkingshaw," she answered, with trembling candor, "I feel very much honored, but really I must ask you not to—not to say anything more. Our ages—oh, everything—I couldn't! I had better go back now."
The philanthropic father gasped.
"Ellen! stop! My dear child, I don't mean myself! Good heavens, I am far too old for a young girl like you!"
Yet it was at that moment that he suddenly realized he wasn't.
"Then—then what—" she began, and stopped, overwhelmed with confusion.