little escaped.

"Have you," she asked suddenly, and so suddenly that both boy and girl
jumped, "have you decided to marry Timothy at last, Arethusa?"

"Yes," replied Timothy.

"No," replied Arethusa, although very weakly, for it was more from
force of habit than anything else.

Timothy put his arm clear around her quite unashamed before Miss Eliza,
to the deep interest and great delight of Mandy, peering through the
kitchen door; and he drew the unresisting girl close to his side.

"Yes," he repeated, with firmness, "she has!"

Arethusa looked up at him sideway, at the strength of his young
profile; and feeling his arm around her and remembering how strong and
sure that arm had seemed such a little while before, like a bulwark for
safety between her and anything that might threaten, she answered
meekly, almost like an echo, "Yes, I have!"

And this was quite in spite of the fact (and yet that may have been the
very reason why she did, for she had always declared so emphatically
that she would say, "no!" to any such proposition coming from him) that
Timothy had made no formal proposal of marriage to her so far this
summer.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART OF ARETHUSA***

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