"Because I love you, Nellie."
"Do you mean it—every word of it?"
"I'll swear a thousand oaths if you like."
"And you'll never love anyone else?"
She put both her hands upon his shoulders, and looked straight into his eyes.
Bob admitted in confidence to his friend Dick, whom he met presently, that it was the look which did it.
"I'll never love anybody else, if I live to two hundred, Nellie. You'll just be my little girl, and when we're married—"
He paused abruptly, wondering what he had said. Nellie, however, sealed the compact instantly. She gave him a smacking kiss on his lips, and held him so tightly that he could not utter a single word.
"I'll have to tell mother, Bob—I'll have to tell her when we get back. I'm sure she'll be kind about it. I know she likes you. Wasn't it lucky we came up here to-day? Wouldn't it have been dreadful to have gone with all those people? Oh, why didn't we bring our lunch—I'm sure I ought to have thought of it. Now, I suppose, we'll have to go down."
Bob shook his head. It really was very nice to be kissed like that, and he didn't mind how long the process continued. The future became as misty as the wraith of cloud floating over Mont Blanc. After all, things might be fixed up somehow, and his two hundred a year would be all right if they didn't get married until he got something to do.