ogether? You both
look serious enough."

"Nothing, Mildred--that is, only another sea-voyage."

Mildred glanced at him uneasily. She did not like the tone in his
voice.

"I have a bit of bad news for you, Arthur. That fool, that idiot,
Jane"--and she stamped her little foot upon the pavement--"has upset
the mummy hyacinth-pot and broken the flower off just as it was coming
into bloom. I have given her a quarter's wages and her passage back to
England, and packed her off."

"Why, Mildred," remonstrated Miss Terry, "what a fuss to make about a
flower!"

She turned on her almost fiercely.

"I had rather have broken my arm, or anything short of my neck, than
that she should have broken that flower. Arthur planted it, and now
the clumsy girl has destroyed it," and Mildred looked as though she
were going to cry.

As there was nothing more to be said, Miss Terry went away. As soon as
she was gone, Mildred turned to Arthur and said--

"You were right, Arthur; we shall never see it bloom in this world."

"Never mind about the flower, dear; it cannot be helped. I want to
speak to you of something more important. Miss Terry saw you kiss me
last night, and she not unnaturally is anxious to know what it all
means."

"And did you tell her?"

"Yes."

It was Mildred's turn to blush now.

"Mildred, you must listen to me. This cannot go on any more; either
you must marry me, or----"

"Or what?"

"Or I must go away. At present our whole life is a lie."

"Do you really wish me to marry you, Arthur?"

"I not only wish it, I think it necessary."

"Have you nothing more to say than that?"

"Yes, I have to say that I will do my best to make you a good and
faithful husband, and that I am sure you will make me a good wife."

She dropped her face upon her hands and thought.

Just then Miss Terry came hurrying up.

"Oh, Arthur!" she said, "just think, the _Roman_ is in, after all, but
all her boats are gone, and they say that half of her passengers and
crew are washed overboard; do go down and see about it."

He hesitated a little.

"Go, dear," whispered Mildred. "I want time to think. I will give you
my answer this afternoon."

Mildred sat still on the verandah thinking, but she had not been there
many minutes before a servant came with her English letters that had
been brought by the unfortunate _Roman_, and at the same time informed
her that the _Garth Castle_ had been sighted, and would anchor in a
few hours