them? And, glorious as she
was above all other women, the offer which he had made must have some
weight with her. He did not think that he proposed to give more than
she deserved, but still, that which he was so willing to give was not
a little. Or was it possible that she had not understood his meaning?
If so, he would not willingly lose a moment before he made it plain
to her. But she seemed content to hang about with the other women,
and when she sauntered about the grounds seated herself on a
garden-chair with Lady Mabel, and discussed with great eloquence the
general beauty of Scottish scenery. An hour went on in this way.
Could it be that she knew that he had offered to make her his wife?
During this time he went and returned more than once, but still she
was there, on the same garden-seat, talking to those who came in her
way.

Then on a sudden she got up and put her hand on his arm. "Come and
take a turn with me," she said. "Lord Silverbridge, do you remember
anything of last night?"

"Remember!"

"I thought for a while this morning that I would let it pass as
though it had been mere trifling."

"It would have wanted two to let it pass in that way," he said,
almost indignantly.

On hearing this she looked up at him, and there came over her face
that brilliant smile, which to him was perhaps the most potent of her
spells. "What do you mean by--wanting two?"

"I must have a voice in that as well as you."

"And what is your voice?"

"My voice is this. I told you last night that I loved you. This
morning I ask you to be my wife."

"It is a very clear voice," she said,--almost in a whisper; but in a
tone so serious that it startled him.

"It ought to be clear," he said doggedly.

"Do you think I don't know that? Do you think that if I liked you
well last night I don't like you better now?"

"But do you--like me?"

"That is just the thing I am going to say nothing about."

"Isabel!"

"Just the one thing I will not allude to. Now you must listen to me."

"Certainly."

"I know a great deal about you. We Americans are an inquiring people,
and I have found out pretty much everything." His mind misgave him
as he felt she had ascertained his former purpose respecting Mabel.
"You," she said, "among young men in England are about the foremost,
and therefore,--as I think,--about the foremost in the world. And you
have all personal gifts;--youth and spirits-- Well, I will not go on
and name the others.