"Lina, I thought you loved me better than that," he said, reproachfully. "What reason can there be for waiting so long?"
"There is a very important reason," she replied, tremblingly.
"Tell me what it is," said Ronald, half-laughing.
He thought it was only some small feminine scruple he could easily overcome.
She looked at him, hesitating strangely.
She had moved a little way from him, and stood with her hand resting easily on the back of a chair, while her long lashes drooped and a crimson flush tinted her face.
"Tell me what it is," he said again. "Is it that the pretty wedding-dress is ruined. Lina? Never mind that. The one you are wearing will do perfectly well."
"It is a greater obstacle than that," she faltered; "but it may be overcome after awhile. Uncle says so, and Walter Earle—I have told him, too—says that it will all come right."
"Lina, come here to my side and put both your hands in mine," said Ronald Valchester.
She obeyed him, though she trembled like a leaf.