t win her, all in an instant he falls madly in love with her.

"You must answer me, here and now!" he cried; but Dorothy turned from
him, and, like a startled fawn, slipped through his outstretched hands,
through the conservatory, and out of the corridor beyond, leaving him
staring after her, his handsome face pale with emotion.

Dorothy never paused until she reached her own room.

She closed and locked the door with trembling hands and beating heart;
then, after the fashion of young girls, she laughed and cried
hysterically all in a breath, dancing around the room in a mad fashion,
clapping her hands and sobbing out:

"Oh, at last--at last, my hero, my ideal has turned from a block of
marble to human clay, and tells me that he loves me and wants me to be
his wife--me--a silly little thing like me!" and she paused before the
glass, wondering what he saw in the pink-and-white face reflected there
to love forever and ever. She wished she knew.

CHAPTER VIII.

Dorothy's merriment was soon interrupted by a loud knock at the door,
and when she opened it, panting with her exertion of dancing around the
room, she found Mrs. Kemp standing there, with a white, frightened face.

"What in the world is the matter here, child?" she cried, in alarm. "I
was afraid there were burglars, or Heaven knows what, up here in this
room."

Dorothy burst into a peal of laughter that amazed the old lady and made
the very walls echo with her bright young voice.

"Oh, something so funny has just happened!" she gasped. "You will be as
much surprised as I was, Mrs. Kemp, when you hear it."

The housekeeper knew just what had happened, for, although unknown to
Dorothy, she was in the conservatory when she had entered; but before
she could make her presence known Kendal had appeared upon the scene,
and the proposal of marriage had followed so quickly upon the heels of
it that she felt she could not leave without embarrassing both, so she
waited there until they had quitted the conservatory.

As soon as she thought it practicable she followed Dorothy to her room
to congratulate her, and the sight that met her view surprised her--the
girl's face, instead of being flushed with tell-tale blushes and covered
with confusion, as she had expected, was convulsed with laughter.

"Oh, do come in!" cried Dorothy, excitedly. "I have something that I
want to tell you--I want you to decide for me what is best to do."

"I will give you the best