"If mamma could only be kept from ordering the trousseau!" she suddenly exclaimed, more in answer to her own thoughts than to him.
"Where's the necessity of preventing her?"
She looked up wonderingly, and caught his smile full of meaning, all apparent in the moonlight.
"The things ordered and intended for Madame de la Chasse--will they not serve equally well for Mrs. Frederick St. John?"
"Oh--but"--and her downcast face felt glowing with heat "nothing will be wanted at all yet for--any one."
"Indeed! I think they will be wanted very soon. Do you suppose," he added; laughing, "I should be permitted to carry you away with me to the South without an outfit?"
"I am not going to the South now," she quickly said.
"Yes, Adeline. I hope you and I shall winter there."
"I am quite well now."
"I know you are: and that it will be almost a superfluous precaution. Nevertheless, it is well to be on the safe side. My darling!" and he bent over her, "you would not be dismayed at the prospect of passing a whole winter alone with me?"