bad letter-writer, Dick," she protested, with
a laugh. "I've only had two notes from you, but those are very
precious--precious as though written on leaves of gold."

"You are sure, Dora, that you're not sorry you engaged yourself to a
useless person like me?"

"You shall not abuse yourself in that way!"

"You are quite sure?" he repeated.

"Quite sure, my hero."

"And you never cared for that cad, Ormsby? not one little bit?"

"No. Not one little bit."

"It's a confounded nuisance, his being laid up in your house. But he
won't go to the front. That's one comfort. He was so stuck-up about it!
To hear him talk, you would have thought he was going to run the whole
war. Why don't they send him home, instead of letting you have all the
bother of an invalid in your house?"

"Oh, it's no bother. We have two trained nurses there, who take night and
day duty. I only relieve them occasionally."

Dick grunted contemptuously.

"You'll send him away as soon as he gets well, won't you?"

"As soon as he is able to move, of course; but that rests with father.
You know how he loves to have someone to talk with about the war."

"I've got a bone to pick with Ormsby when I come back. Do you know what
the cad said about me at the dinner?"

"No."

"It was after I struck him in the face and went away--after the gathering
broke up. He was naturally very sore and sick about the way he'd behaved,
and the others told him it was caddish; but he said he knew a thing or
two about the money affairs of my family, and mine in particular, and he
wouldn't be surprised to see me in jail one of these fine days."

"How infamous!"

"The scoundrel went so far as to hint darkly that I almost owed my
liberty to him--as much as to say that, if he chose to speak, I'd have to
do a term in the penitentiary."

"Oh, nonsense! It was just an angry man's idle threat. He is the very
essence of conceit and stubborn pride, and was probably smarting under
the indignity of the blow you gave him."

"I wish I'd made it half-a-dozen instead of one." Then, with sudden
tenderness: "Promise me, darling, that you'll never listen to tales and
abuse about me, no matter how plausible they may seem. I know I've been
going the pace; but I'm going to pull up, for I've come into a fortune
now more precious than my grandfather's money-bags. I've won the dearest,
sweetest, truest, bravest little girl, and I mean to be worthy of her."

"I'll listen to no one and be