"Oh, Tom! Tom never would see anything--like that; but I see. Honestly, don't you think Mary's very pretty?"
"She's not bad, in a way; but she's not to be compared with you."
"That she certainly isn't; you don't imagine that you can make me believe that I'm--a tenth part as pretty as Mary? Do you take me for a perfect goose?"
"Stella, do you remember what you said before dinner about the ring. You said--I don't know if you meant it."
"I meant every word I said, Rodney."
"Well, sweetheart, you said it was the most beautiful ring you had ever seen. Just as you said that, and meant it, I say and mean that you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen; and, to me, you will be the most beautiful girl, as long as I live."
"Do you really mean that? Really?"
"By the time we're--Darby and Joan, you'll know I mean it. Now, young woman, I'm as one who speaks with authority. I'm authorised to inform you that if you will stand with me at the altar inside a month you will make your mother happy and your father happy, to say nothing of me. So which day next month is it to be? Shall I put it at the first?"
"Who told you to say that?"
"Your own father, this morning as ever was."