"A clergyman must be sent to us, and there are some other matters which I wish attended to, so we must decide now. Still, my darling, if you shrink from this step, if the thought of it shocks you, I will not urge it, I will wait until you are quite ready for it."
"Did papa propose it?" Virgie asked, hiding her flushed face from those eager, loving eyes looking down upon her.
"Yes. I should not have presumed to suggest anything of the kind at such a time," returned the young baronet, gravely. "But he thinks that his mind would be easier if he could see you my wife. He wishes to give you away irrevocably while he is able. Then, dear, I could be with you all the time to help you in your care of him, to relieve you of much that would encroach upon your strength. Tell me freely, Virgie, shall it or shall it not be?"
"Do you really wish it? or—are you only yielding to his desire?" she asked, in a low voice.
He gathered her closer to his breast until she could feel the eager throbbing of his great heart.
"The day that makes you my wife will be the most blessed of all my life; though, for your sake. I could wish our bridal to be celebrated under less sorrowful circumstances Still it must not be as I wish. You must decide the question," he said, gravely.
There was a long pause. Then Virgie said, quietly:
"I am willing."
"Is that all, love? Are you simply willing to do as your father requests? Shall you not be glad to be my wife?" Sin William questioned, with a slight accent of pain.
"Yes, Will, I shall be glad; but, oh, my father! my father!" she cried, with a fresh burst of grief, as she realized all that this hurried marriage meant.