"I suggested an application of the golden rule."
"Yes," said Dolly; "I think that rule settles it. I should think no woman would let a man marry her who, she knew, liked somebody else better."
"And no man in his senses—no good man," said Sandie, "would have a woman for his wife whose heart belonged to another man; or, leaving third parties out of the question, whose heart did not belong to him. I said something of this to Christina. She answered me with the consequences of scandal, disgrace, gossip, which she said attend the breaking off of an engagement. In short, she threw over all my arguments. I had to come to the point. I asked her if she would like to marry me, if she knew that I liked somebody else better?
"She opened her eyes at me. 'Do you, Sandie?' she said. And I told her yes.
"'Who?' she asked as quick as a flash. And I knew then that her heart was safe," Mr. Shubrick added with a smile. "I told her frankly, that ever since Christmas Day, I had known that if I ever married anybody it would be the lady I then saw with her.
"'Dolly!' she cried. 'But you don't know her, Sandie.'"
Mr. Shubrick and Dolly both stopped to laugh.
"I am sure that was true. And I should think unanswerable," said Dolly.
"It was not true. Do you think it is true now?"
"Well, you know me a little better, but I should think, not much."