“Emilie has been speaking to my father; mightn’t she come and speak with your parents?” [[184]]
“Yes,” she answered, with a beaming smile. “But I don’t know—I don’t think——”
“Emilie knows how to talk.”
“You are very fond of her, eh?”
“Yes—and of you too.”
She pressed his head closer in the soft bend of her arm and gave him a kiss on his forehead—her first!
And the odour of the moss and the violets became mingled together into a fragrant sigh, whose sweetness made her feel faint, whilst her little hand closed caressingly, and disarranged his light-brown hair. She listened, still with that same happy smile, to his soft voice, as he was telling her of the conversation he had had with his sister, before he knew whether Lili would ever care for him. For a time he had certainly felt anxious; now, however, the whole world seemed to him one smiling landscape.
“Emilie thought you would not have a poor husband. Won’t you have a poor husband?”
“Are you poor?”
“Well, I am not rich.”