ase. You may be quite sure that I shall be
true to you, through ill report and good report. Nothing that mamma can
say to me will change me, and certainly nothing from Sir Magnus.

"And now there need not be a word from you, if you mean to be true to
me. Indeed, I have promised that there shall be no word, and I expect
you to keep my promise for me. If you wish to be free of me, then you
must write and say so.

"But you won't wish it, and therefore I am yours, always, always, always
your own

"FLORENCE."

Harry read the letter standing up in the middle of the room, and in half
a minute he had torn off his wet coat and kicked one of his wet boots to
the farther corner of the room. Then there was a knock at the door, and
his mother entered, "Tell me, Harry, what she says."

He rushed up to his mother, all damp and half-shod as he was, and seized
her in his arms. "Oh, mother, mother!"

"What is it, dear?"

"Read that, and tell me whether there ever was a finer human being!"
Mrs. Annesley did read it, and thought that her own daughter Molly was
just as fine a creature. Florence was simply doing what any girl of
spirit would do. But she saw that her son was as jubilant now as he had
been downcast, and she was quite willing to partake of his comfort. "Not
write a word to her! Ha, ha! I think I see myself at it!"

"But she seems to be in earnest there."

"In earnest! And so am I in earnest. Would it be possible that a fellow
should hold his hand and not write? Yes, my girl; I think that I must
write a line. I wonder what she would say if I were not to write?"

"I think she means that you should be silent."

"She has taken a very odd way of assuming it. I am to keep her promise
for her,--my darling, my angel, my life! But I cannot do that one thing.
Oh, mother, mother, if you knew how happy I am! What the mischief does
it all signify,--Uncle Prosper, Miss Thoroughbung, and the rest of
it,--with a girl like that?"

CHAPTER XXV.

HARRY AND HIS UNCLE.

Harry was kissed all round by the girls, and was congratulated warmly on
the heavenly excellence of his mistress. They could afford to be
generous if he would be good-natured. "Of course you must write to her,"
said Molly, when he came down-stairs with dry clothes.

"I should think so, mother."

"Only she does seem to be so much in earnest about it," said Mrs.
Annesley.

"I think she would rather get just a line to say that he is in earnest
too," said