a very dismal square, with a boarded-up fountain in the middle,
sodden grass plots, and dead leaves dancing in the wintry wind.

But to them it was a summery Paradise, and they walked to and fro in the
pale sunshine, quite unconscious that they were objects of interest
to several ladies and gentlemen waiting anxiously for their dinner or
yawning over the dull books kept for Sunday reading. "Are you ready
to come home now, Phebe?" asked Archie tenderly as he looked at the
downcast face beside him and wondered why all women did not wear
delightful little black velvet bonnets with one deep red flower against
their hair.

"Not yet. I haven't done enough," began Phebe, finding it very hard to
keep the resolution made a year ago.

"You have proved that you can support yourself, make friends, and earn a
name, if you choose. No one can deny that, and we are all getting proud
of you. What more can you ask, my dearest?"

"I don't quite know, but I am very ambitious. I want to be famous, to do
something for you all, to make some sacrifice for Rose, and, if I can,
to have something to give up for your sake. Let me wait and work longer
I know I haven't earned my welcome yet," pleaded Phebe so earnestly
that her lover knew it would be in vain to try and turn her, so wisely
contented himself with half, since he could not have the whole.

"Such a proud woman! Yet I love you all the better for it, and
understand your feeling. Rose made me see how it seems to you, and I
don't wonder that you cannot forget the unkind things that were looked,
if not said, by some of my amiable aunts. I'll try to be patient on one
condition, Phebe."

"And what is that?"

"You are to let me come sometimes while I wait, and wear this lest you
should forget me," he said, pulling a ring from his pocket and gently
drawing a warm, bare hand out of the muff where it lay hidden.

"Yes, Archie, but not here not now!" cried Phebe, glancing about her as
if suddenly aware that they were not alone.

"No one can see us here I thought of that. Give me one happy minute,
after this long, long year of waiting," answered Archie, pausing just
where the fountain hid them from all eyes, for there were houses only on
one side.

Phebe submitted and never did a plain gold ring slip more easily to its
place than the one he put on in such a hurry that cold December day.
Then one hand went back into the muff red with the grasp he gave it, and
the other to its old place on