London skies very unlike these," she said, laughing a
little, but nervously. "You mean the day when our umbrellas collided!"

"You mustn't abuse the murky skies," said Brian, smiling. "If the sun
had been shining, the collision would never have occurred. Oh, Erica!
What a life time it seems since that day in Gower Street! I little
thought then that I should have to wait more than seven years to
tell you of my love, or that at last I should tell you in a Roman
amphitheatre under these blue skies. Erica, I think you have known it of
late. Have you, my darling? Have you known how I loved you?"

"Yes," she said, looking down at her sketch book with glowing cheeks.

"Oh! If you knew what a paradise of hope you opened to me that day last
December and how different life has been ever since! Those were gray
years, Erica, when I dared not even hope to gain your love. But lately,
darling, I have hoped. Was I wrong?"

"No," she said with a little quiver in her voice.

"You will love me?"

She looked up at him for a moment in silence, a glorious light in her
eyes, her whole face radiant with joy.

"I do love you," she said softly.

He drew nearer to her, held both her hands in his, waiting only for the
promise which would make her indeed his own.

"Will you be my wife, darling?"

But the words had scarcely passed his lips when a look of anguish swept
over Erica's face; she snatched away her hands.

"Oh! God help me!" she cried. "What have I done? I've been living in a
dream! It's impossible, Brian! Impossible!"

A gray look came over Brian's face.

"How impossible?" he asked in a choked voice.

"I can't leave home," she said, clasping her hands tightly together. "I
never can leave my father."

"I will wait," said Brian, recovering his voice. "I will wait any time
for you only give me hope."

"I can't," she sobbed. "I daren't!"

"But you have given it me!" he exclaimed. "You have said you loved me!"

"I do! I do!" she cried passionately. "But, oh, Brian! Have pity on me
don't make me say it again I must not think of it I can never be your
wife."

Her words were broken with sobs which she could not restrain.

"My darling," he said growing calm and strong again at the sight of her
agitation, and once more possessing himself of her hand, "you have had a
great many troubles lately, and I can quite understand that just now you
could not leave your father. But I will wait till less troubled times;
then surely you