r why on earth she threw
that dish of water on me; did she ever say that she had anything
against me?"

"No. If you could be a girl for half an hour you'd know that the man
to whom she shows most favour is frequently the one she most despises,
while he whom she ignores or ill-treats is the one she most warmly
regards."

"How on earth is that?"

"Oh, a species of shyness like your own, which makes you talk freely
of Dawn and Ada Grosvenor, because you have no particular interest in
them, whereas there is some name you guard jealously from me," I
cunningly replied.

"Is it true that Miss Dawn is engaged to Eweword? If she is let me
know in time to send her a wedding present. I'd like to, because she's
your friend," he said with such elaborate unconcern that I had
difficulty in suppressing a smile. His step-brother, the dilettante,
would never have been so clumsily transparent in a similar case.

"Nonsense; she's as much engaged to you as to him," I said
reassuringly, and that was all that passed between us on that subject.
He energetically confined our conversation to the lovely odour from
the lucerne fields we were passing on the river-bank, but I was not
surprised that the afternoon's post brought Dawn a letter that
smothered her in blushes, and plunged her in a gay abstraction too
complete for either Uncle Jake or Andrew to penetrate.

When we were once more in our big room, commanding a view of the
Western mail with its cosy lights twinkling across the valley, she
extended me the privilege of perusing one of the simplest and most
straightforward avowals of love from a young man to a maiden it has
been my delight to encounter.

"DEAR MISS DAWN,--You will be very surprised at receiving
such a letter from me, but I hope you will not be offended.
I have loved you since the first day I saw you, but have
kept it so well to myself that no one has suspected it,
perhaps not even yourself. Will you be my wife? I love you
better than life, and am willing to wait any number of years
up to ten, if you can only give me hope of eventually
winning you. I do not expect you to care for me at once, but
if you can give me hope that you do not dislike me I shall
be content to wait. You are so beautiful and good, I am
afraid to ask you to marry me, but I would try hard to make
you happy, and being in a position to live comfortably, you
could continue any studies yo