And only then did she
turn her head.

"Yes!" his courage coming back full and strong. "I want you to tell me
you love me, and while my arms are round you like this! May I kiss
you?"

"No other man save my father shall."

"Ah, I haven't done anything to deserve this!"

"No?"

"I'm not even a third-rate hero."

"No?" with gentle raillery.

"Say you love me!"

"_Amo, ama, amiamo_ . . ."

"In English; I have never heard it in English."

"So," pushing back from him, "you have heard it in Italian?"

"Laura, I didn't mean that! There was never any one else. Say it!"

So she said it softly; she repeated it, as though the utterance was as
sweet to her lips as it was to his ears. And then, for the first time,
she became supine in his arms. With his cheek touching the hair on her
brow, they together watched but did not see the final conquest of the
day.

"And I have had the courage to ask you to be my wife?" It was
wonderful.

Napoleon, his hunted great-grandson, the treasure, all these had ceased
to exist.

"John, when you lay in the corridor the other night, and I thought you
were dying, I kissed you." Her arm tightened as did his. "Will you
promise never to tell if I confess a secret?"

"I promise."

"You never would have had the courage to propose if I hadn't
deliberately brought you here for that purpose. It was I who proposed
to you."

"I'm afraid I don't quite get that," doubtfully.

"Then we'll let the subject rest where it is. You might bring it up in
after years." Her laughter was happy.

He raised his eyes reverently toward heaven. She would never know that
she had stood in danger.

"But your father!" with a note of sudden alarm. And all the worldly
sides to the dream burst upon him.

"Father is only the 'company,' John."

And so the admiral himself admitted when, an hour later, Fitzgerald put
the affair before him, briefly and frankly.

"It is all her concern, my son, and only part of mine. My part is to
see that you keep in order. I don't know; I rather expected it. Of
course," said the admiral, shifting his cigar, "there's a business end
to it. I'm a rich man, but Laura isn't worth a cent, in money. Young
men generally get the wrong idea, that daughters of wealthy parents
must also be wealthy." He was glad to hear the young man laugh. It
was a good sign.

"My earnings and my income amount to about seven-thousand a year; and
with an object in view I can earn