"You are not to hold me at arm's length, sir."
For answer, he caught her to him, and with his lips upon hers, he vowed to hold her in his heart of hearts forever and forever.
Presently, after what seemed to them a few moments of silence and sweet peace, Diantha lifted her head from his breast, and said:
"Come, John, Aunt Clara will wonder at our being in here without alight. Come, let us go out and thank her."
"Wait one moment, my girl." But she insisted, and together they opened the door, and stood with modest assertion of their love before their dearest friend.
John held his arm around the girl, as if fearing she might change her mind when once in the light, and observed by other eyes.
"This John of mine is a queer John, Aunt Clara," said Diantha, merrily, her breath quick with the joy of her expressed ownership in the big fellow beside her; "he seems to think, because I am glad to see him, that he can domineer over me, and he has kept me in there nearly half an hour, simply to tell him that I am glad he has got home."
"Half an hour?" asked Aunt Clara, dryly; "you two have shut yourselves up in there for over two hours. It's after ten o'clock."
"Why, John Stevens, I am ashamed of you," said the girl, with sparkling eyes and soft laughter.
"A man has a right to say how-do-you-do to his wife, hasn't he?" he said, gravely.