"Anything you like!" he answered. "By-the-bye, oughtn't he to be home by this time?"
"He may have been kept by some business," she said—"He won't be long now. You'll say we're engaged?"
"Yes."
"And perhaps"—went on Innocent—"you might ask him not to have the banns put up yet as we don't want it known quite so soon—"
"I'll do all I can," he replied, cheerily—"all I can to keep him quiet, and to make you happy! There! I can't say more!"
Her eyes shone upon him with a grateful tenderness.
"You are very good, Robin!"
He laughed.
"Good! Not I! But I can't bear to see you fret—if I had my way you should never know a moment's trouble that I could keep from you. But I know I'm not a patch on your old stone knight who wrote such a lot about his 'ideal'—and yet went and married a country wench and had six children. Don't frown, dear! Nothing will make me say he was romantic! Not a bit of it! He wrote a lot of romantic things, of course—but he didn't mean half of them!—I'm sure he didn't!"
She coloured indignantly.