“You have made the world glorious again! When will you marry me, Sallie?” he bent his face close to her, and for an answer she tenderly kissed him.
They stood in silence a moment with clasped hands, and then she said slowly, “You didn’t want your freedom did you, dear? That’s the third kiss, isn’t it? I wonder if kissing will be always as sweet! But you asked me when we can marry? I can’t tell now. I can do nothing to shock Mama. She seems to draw closer and closer to me every day. And now that I have determined no power shall separate us, it seems more and more necessary that I shall win Papa’s consent. He loves me dearly. I feel that I must have his blessing on our lives. Give me time. I hope to win him.”
“And you will never let another week pass without writing to me?”
“Never. Send my letters to Bob. He loves you better than he ever thought he loved me. He will give them to me on Sundays at church, and when he calls.”
For two hours the kindly mantle of the magnolia sheltered them while they told the old sweet story over and over again. And somehow that night it seemed to them sweeter each time it was told.
CHAPTER IV—THE UNSPOKEN TERROR
WHEN Gaston reached Hambright the following day, and whispered to his mother the good news, he hastened to tell his friend Tom Camp. The young man’s heart warmed toward the white-haired old soldier in this hour of his victory. With sparkling eyes, he told Tom of his stormy scene with the General, of its curious ending, and the hours he spent in heaven beneath the limbs of an old magnolia.