uch I care for you, and how
it was to end, and yet you think I may fall in love with someone else when
you have gone away. How can you think such a thing?"

"I have no cause to think so, Lancy, for indeed you have been most kind to
me all along; but I cannot help thinking that you may meet someone else who
would suit you better, and yet you would feel bound to me if a promise was
made between us. Let me go away free, Lancy, and if by the time you are
ready to take a wife you find your feelings the same as they are now, ask
me your question again; perhaps I will know my own mind by that time, for I
must confess I hardly do at present."

"I will never change; but you--you want to leave the way open for yourself,
and I thought you cared for me, Dexie."

Dexie felt hurt at his reproachful tone, but she put her hand across his,
saying: "Lancy, don't be silly, for I do care for you. I do not know any
other person, outside my own family, that I like so well as I do you. Now,
will that admission satisfy you? But do not ask a promise from me for a
year; give me even six months; by that time we will know whether we are
necessary to each other's happiness or not."

"Very well, Dexie, but I shall feel that you are mine, even though you have
not given me your promise; so do not let any romantic notions run away with
you when I am not near to watch you."

"But, Lancy," said she, laughing, "supposing I should happen to meet some
person who inspired me with love such as one reads of in story books, would
you care to have me for a wife if my heart were not in the bargain?"

"No, Dexie, I hope you are supposing impossible things. Would you break my
heart?"

"Hearts don't break, Lancy," she said, smiling; "they may ache, but I doubt
if they ever break."

"Dexie, you make my heart ache already. I have planned and hoped so much,
and you give me so little to build on, after all. Is it fair to trifle with
me like this?"

There was a few minutes' silence, then Dexie said:

"Lancy, think a minute. Have I ever been guilty of trifling with anyone's
feelings? Have I not been open and outspoken to you in everything? I am
afraid, Lancy, this very fact has made you think that I care for you more
than I really do, but I think that too many young girls jump into matrimony
with their eyes blindfolded, and I do not intend to add to the number.
There is plenty of time to settle the question, when I know that I really
love you. It would not be h