“It’s true, dearest, and you must answer me quickly, for that driver is getting impatient, don’t you know? And I can not come back for an answer to-morrow, for I’ll be on my way to New York before your blue eyes see the light in the morning, and the day after I sail for Europe, to be absent, at the shortest possible time, a month. And you won’t be so cruel as to send me away in despair?”
She had always thought, in her maidenly dreams of love, that she should not answer yes to her lover’s first proposal; she would keep him in suspense awhile; but at the thought of the long sea voyage, her tender heart quaked. What if he should be drowned, her darling boy, and never know she loved him so dearly?
“Answer me,” he pleaded; and she sighed:
“It is so sudden.”
Beresford laughed low and happily.
“Yes, Love was born full grown, was he not? Love at first sight, and it is delicious so. Oh, Floy, is it hopeless? Don’t you love me just a little after all?”
“Not a little—a whole world full,” she whispered, carried out of herself by his passion.
Just then the gruff driver bawled irascibly:
“Ain’t you never coming, sir? It’ll soon be daylight!”
Beresford caught her in his arms, pressing her tightly to his heart, as he whispered: