“Don’t you see,” he pursued eagerly, “that if I had really given you up, I should have given up the paper, the fight, everything? Don’t you see that, love?”
“Yes; that is true,” she assented sweetly. “That must be true. Though perhaps you did not know it.... Ah, Jem, but I have wearied for you!”
“When’s the very earliest you can marry me, dearest?” he asked.
She looked up at him with her level and fearless eyes. “Any time, Jem.”
“I’m asking a lot of you,” he said, his eager face clouding for the moment. “It is n’t all plain sailing yet; and there won’t be so much to live on even here. If we go to Washington you’ll find it doubly hard, I’m afraid.”
“But I have my own money, Jem. And what is this about Washington?”
“Oh!” said he casually; “they want to nominate me for the Senate, against Mart Embree.”
“Jem! You will take it?”
“If my liege lady approves.”
“Of course she approves. It is wonderful. How could you keep it to yourself! Why did you not tell me the instant you came?”