CHAPTER XIII—THE FIRST KISS

WHY didn’t you ask him yesterday?” cried Sallie, as she entered the parlour the next morning.

“Darling, I was scared out of my wits. We got crossways on some questions we were discussing, and he snorted at me once, and every time I tried to screw up my courage to speak, a lump got in my throat and I gave it up. I thought I’d wait a day or two until he should be in a better humour.”

“He’s gone away to-day,” she said with disappointment.

“I’m glad of it, I ’ll write him a letter.”

“If you had asked him yesterday it would have been all right. He told me so when he left this morning, with a very tender tremor in his voice.”

“But it will be all right, sweetheart, when I write.”

“I wanted my ring,” she whispered.

“You shall have it,” he said, as he seized her hand and led her to a seat.