themselves alone in
their own room, which they were to share together, they sat down for a
comfortable chat ere they retired.

"Do you think you will like Gray Gables?" asked Dorothy.

"It seems pleasant enough," returned Iris, with a yawn; "but it's not
the house so much, it's the people in the neighborhood. Are there many
young folks hereabouts?"

"Quite a number."

"Are they very jolly, or are they terribly dull?"

"Well, about as jolly as Mr. Kendal," laughed Dorothy. "He's not so very
jolly, and yet he is wonderfully good company."

"Yes, he is indeed," assented Miss Vincent. "Is he rich?" she asked,
point-blank, in the very next breath.

"No," returned Dorothy; "but he may be well off some day, I hope."

"Handsome and poor! That's too bad--that's a poor combination!" sighed
Miss Vincent, her countenance falling. "But tell me about him, Dorothy,
and--and how he ever happened to take a fancy to a quiet little mouse
like yourself. I have heard that it was your guardian's wish, as he was
dying, and that the idea was quite a surprise to him--to Mr. Kendal, I
mean. Is that true?"

"Yes," assented Dorothy, thoughtlessly enough.

She would not have answered the question in that way could she have seen
the eager anxiety on the face of the girl who asked it.

"Does he make love to you very much?" whispered Iris, laying her soft
cheek close against the blind girl's. "Forgive the question, but, do you
know, I have always had a longing to know just what engaged people said
to each other and how they acted--whether they grew more affectionate,
or, after the grand climax of an engagement had been entered into,
if--if somehow they did not act a little constrained toward each other."

Dorothy laughed long and merrily at the quaint ideas of her new friend.
But, then, no doubt all girls wished to know that. She had done so
herself once.

"You do not answer me," murmured Miss Vincent. "Now, please don't be
unkind, Dorothy, when I'm just dying to know."

"Well," said Dorothy, waxing very confidential, after the fashion of
girls, "I'll tell you _my_ experience; but mind, I don't say that it is
like every other girl's. Harry has been just a trifle bashful ever since
the afternoon that he asked me to--to be his wife, and just a little
constrained; but I always account for it in this way: that he does not
want me to think him silly and spoony. He has grown, oh! ever so
dignified. Why, he hardly ever says anything more ab