“Darling, you do love me; you will be mine?” he pleaded, in a tender whisper, with his lips close to her glowing cheek.
“Yes, Phil, I am forced to confess that I do love you,” Gertrude replied, in low, tremulous tones.
“And you are mine—you give yourself to me,” he persisted.
“Yes, dear, when the proper times comes—when you have completed your college course and are ready for me.”
A wave of triumph swept over the young man’s features. He had won his cause, he had gained his point, and that was the most he cared for.
It mattered little to him that he was desecrating holy ground in winning the love of this pure and lofty-minded girl. His own future he had marked out for himself, and if Mollie Heatherford returned safe and sound from Europe, and with her fortune intact, he had not the remotest idea of redeeming his troth to Gertrude Athol. He was simply fooling her to the top of his bent, for the sake of conquest and the want of something more to occupy his time.
How he was to get out of the scrape he had so unwittingly got into he did not know; but he did not trouble himself about that just then—he would find a way when the right time came. Meanwhile he would enjoy the present and let the future adjust itself.
So, the two were pledged—at least, so Gertrude understood their relations. But they agreed among themselves that they would preserve the matter a secret until Phil should be through college. It was sufficient, the fair girl said, with a trustfulness worthy of a better return, to know that they belonged to each other, and there would be time enough for their friends and the world to know it when their plans were more mature.
That same day by the evening post there came to Philip Wentworth a dainty missive from across the water, and it was full of entertaining incident and charming descriptions, and bore at the end the signature of Mollie Heatherford.
“By Jove!” the young man exclaimed, with an amused laugh, after he had read the epistle, “this is getting to be highly entertaining—one lady-love in Europe whose thought centers upon me; another here who firmly believes her life to be bound up in mine, and vice versa. Mollie, however, is but a child as yet, and hardly the companion I crave just at present. Gertrude is more to my mind for the time being. She is lovely, bright, and charming, and delightful company, so I will enjoy her society while I may.”