her
elbows on the other post, swinging her basket lightly while she waited
for him to speak. The mist had quite gone by this time, and the sky was a
fresh, clear blue. "Well," he began, suddenly realizing that this was a
great deal harder than he had supposed ("She'll think I'm going to
bother her with a proposal," he thought),--"well, the fact is, Lois,
there's something I want you to know. Perhaps it doesn't really interest
you, in one way; I mean, it is only a--a happiness of my own, and it
won't make any difference in our friendship, but I wanted you to know
it."

In a moment Miss Deborah's suggestion was a certainty to Lois. She
clasped her hands tight around the handle of her grass basket; Gifford
should not see them tremble. "I'm sure I'll be glad to hear anything that
makes you happy."

Her voice had a dull sound in her own ears.

"Helen put it into my head to tell you," Gifford went on nervously. "I
hope you won't feel that I am not keeping my word"--

She held her white chin a little higher. "I don't know of any 'word,' as
you call it, that there is for you to keep, Gifford."

"Why, that I would not trouble you, you know, Lois," he faltered. "Have
you forgotten?"

"What!" Lois exclaimed, with a start, and a thrill in her voice.

"But I am sure," he said hurriedly, "it won't make you unhappy just to
know that it is still an inspiration in my life, and that it always will
be, and that love, no matter if"--

"Oh, wait a minute, Giff!" Lois cried, her eyes shining like stars
through sudden tears, and her breath quick. "I--I--why, don't you know,
I was to--don't you remember--my promise?"

"Lois!" he said, almost in a whisper. He dropped the bay's rein, and came
and took her hand, his own trembling.

"I know what you were going to say," she began, her face turned away so
that he could only see the blush which had crept up to her temple, "but
I"--He waited, but she did not go on. Then he suddenly took her in his
arms and kissed her without a word; and Max, and the horse, and the
bob-white looked on with no surprise, for after all it was only part of
the morning, and the sunrise, and Nature herself.

"And to think that it's I!" Lois said a minute afterward.

"Why, who else could it be?" cried Gifford rapturously.

But Lois shook her head; even in her joy she was ashamed of herself. "I
won't even remember it," she thought.

Of course there were many explanations. Each was astonished at the other
for