“Certainly, I will.”
“I will speak plainly so that you cannot misunderstand me. The truth is, I love you.”
“O, Captain,” she exclaimed with solemn earnestness, “what a time for such a declaration!”
“Why?” asked Ernest.
“Why, we are on the threshold of a terrible war which will end, we know not when.”
“That is the very reason I want a love to sustain me under the trials which await me. My nature demands love. I am gloomy and wretched without it.”
“How have you managed this long, Captain?”
“I will tell you all about it.” And he gave her a full account of all the circumstances of his past life, after which Mildred with a cunning smile, said:
“It seems, then, I am second choice.”