here
will be no chance to say a word to you, but when I see the ring I can say,
'She is mine! mine!' How sweet to know that it is so!" and he kissed her
hand as he slipped the ring on her finger.

"Mine now, dearest; yet you seemed so far away from me only a few hours
ago. How surprised your father will be! I wish he could see you here in my
arms."

"Oh, hush! that would be dreadful! Was he surprised this afternoon at your
errand? I thought it was you who left those papers; but when you announced
your coming marriage this evening, then I began to doubt," and she laughed
softly.

"It was a surprise at first, but he consented at last to give me his
treasure--if I could get her."

"Poor papa, I will never leave him. No one else seems to have time to be
with him or amuse him as I can, and it is hard for him to feel so helpless
when he has such a restless and energetic disposition."

"I promised not to take you away while he needed you; but, dearest--I do
not want to alarm you--I do not think he will have to bear his pain many
weeks longer. He is failing, I can see, and he told me to-day that he felt
his strength going fast."

"I know it is so, though I have tried to put the thought aside. Dear papa,
how good he has been to me! What news this will be to him! But I hope no
one else will find it out--just yet. Everything must go on much as usual,
before others anyway," smiling into his happy face.

"That will be very hard, don't you think, little wife? How shall I be able
to hide my love from Gussie?"

"Oh! you will be coming here after this just to see papa, you know,"
looking at him archly, "and I fancy she will find little to interest her in
the man that has so openly announced his approaching marriage to a lady who
is unknown. I'll not object, perhaps, to let you stay--with papa, you
know--on the nights that I take my turn to sit up with him. But there is
his bell, and oh! Guy, look at the clock!"

Dexie's heart beat fast as she hurried to her father's room, but she was
needlessly alarmed. His unusual sleep had renewed his strength, but Dexie,
fearing the worst, asked anxiously:

"Are you in much pain, dear papa?"

"Oh! no, child; I feel first-rate. I guess that bad spell I had at bedtime
is going to do me for to-night; but I am thirsty, so when you get me fixed
up you can go to bed. You must be tired to death, my dear girl," he added,
as Dexie busied herself about him. "What time is it? Not past two, surely?