"Oh, Laurie—so far away!" she cried, and clung to him, pale and trembling, a mist of tears rising to her lovely blue eyes.
"Only for one little year, darling," he said, tenderly. "Then I shall return to claim my little bride; for my father is rich, and we need not wait as if I had to make my own way in the world."
"A year of absence!" Flower went on, with wild dismay, tears overflowing her beautiful cheeks.
She laid her golden head upon her lover's breast and sobbed bitterly, as if with a prescience of the cruel fate that overshadowed her fair young life.
He was quite as sorry to go as she was over his going, and when he saw her grief a wild idea came to him. Why not marry Flower before he went away, and take her with him to Germany?
He whispered his thought to her, and at first she was quite startled. Her beautiful face was crimson with blushes.
"Oh, I could not do that! Besides, mamma would never consent!" she exclaimed.
But the idea had taken strong hold of Laurie Meredith's fancy. He loved his blue-eyed little Flower so ardently that he could not bear the thought of leaving her while he went abroad. Something might happen. She might forget him, might be won from him by another. She was so young and lovely, who could tell what would happen?
He painted to her in low, sweet, eloquent murmurs, his love, his doubts and fears, while she protested her fidelity with girlish vehemence.