“What is it—are you tired?” he asked, uneasily, sitting beside her. “Ah, Dorothy, you know it so well already!—know that always I have loved you—and yet you make it so hard for me to tell you. You have held me off and made me afraid to speak, but to-night—but to-night you must tell me, Dorothy. Will you let the others go, and will you marry me, now I am through college? Answer me, Dorothy, don’t make me wait.” He had his arms around her, and he drew her face again to his, while his breath came fast and hard, and he could distinctly hear the beating of his heart.
Dorothy looked at him for just a moment, and then she tried to free herself from his arms. “Not until you answer me,” he said, holding her tighter. “What is it?”
“I wonder why men are so stupid,” she said, laughing a little unsteadily, “you take so long to find out what women know so soon. I like the others, but—ah, Bobbie, you know”—and she looked up in his face and touched it shyly with her hand.
And Bobbie knew, knew that of all men on earth he was the most supremely blessed, and he could not speak for the wonderful happiness that filled him. He could only hold her in his arms and kiss the quivering, trembling lips, and the beautiful violet eyes and the moon glints in her hair.
CHAPTER V.
Sallie Tom and Peter Black had a conversation a night or two after the return of the “white folks from the college,” and the announcement of Dorothy’s and Bobbie’s engagement was of course its topic-in-chief.
“Dey do say,” said Sallie Tom, taking her pipe surreptitiously from the depth of her bottomless pocket, and lighting it with a coal from the hearth, “dey do say dat de Doctor done walk de flo’ all night long when Mars’ Bobbie come over and axed for Miss Dorothy, jis as if he didn’t kno’ dat it had to come; every nigger on the place know’d it was gwine to end dat way, and tain’t no use fur de Doctor to say he didn’t spec it so suddin’; tain’t nothin’ suddin’ bout it. Dey been a loving’ one another ever sence dey been born, ever sence his nose got broke. Miss Dorothy is mighty nice, but she ought to thank her Gord A’mighty every day that our Mars’ Bobbie luv her,” and Sallie Tom kicked the ashes together on the hearth and gave a little grunt, puffing vigorously at her pipe meanwhile.