event our
marriage? Would you be happy if it did? Answer me!"

But she shrank from answering, sitting with her hands clasped tightly
before her and her eyes downcast like a prisoner awaiting sentence.
"I don't know--what I want," she told him, miserably. "I feel--as
if--whatever I do--will be wrong."

"That's just it," said Fletcher Hill, as if that were the very admission
he had been waiting for. And then he did what for him was a very curious
thing. He went down upon one knee on the dusty floor, bringing his face
on a level with hers, clasping her tense hands between his own. "You
don't trust yourself, and you won't trust me," he said. "Isn't that it?
Or something like it?"

The official air had dropped from him like a garment. She looked at him
doubtfully, almost as if she suspected him of trying to trick her. Then,
reassured by something in the harsh countenance which his voice and words
utterly failed to express, she leaned impulsively forward with a swift
movement of surrender and laid her head against his shoulder.

"I'll do--whatever you wish," she said, in muffled tones. "I will trust
you! I do trust you!"

He put his arm around her, for she was trembling, and held her so for a
space in silence.

The voice in the billiard-room took up the tale. "That fellow's luck is
positively prodigious. He can't help scoring--whatever he does. He'd dig
gold out of an ash heap."

Someone laughed, and there came again the clash of the billiard-balls,
followed in a second by a shout of applause.

The noise subsided, and Fletcher spoke. "My job here will be over in a
week. Jack can manage to join us at the end of it. Your sister-in-law is
already here. Why not finish up by getting married and returning to
Wallacetown with me?"

"I should have to go back to the farm and get the rest of my things,"
said Dot.

"You could do that afterwards," he said, "when I am away on business. I
shan't be able to take you with me everywhere. Some of the places I have
to go to would be too rough for you. But I shall be at Wallacetown for
some weeks after this job. You have never seen my house there. I took it
over from the last Superintendent. I think you'll like it. I got it for
that reason."

She started a little. "But you didn't know then--How long ago was it?"

"Three years," said Fletcher Hill. "I've been getting it ready for you
ever since."

She looked up at him. "You--took a good deal for granted, didn't you?"
she said.