arm which possessed her. She could not see
Dick's face, but in his voice she had recognized a tone heard in Tom's
that morning when she sat with him under pines as she was sitting now
with Dick and he had asked her to be his wife. Something told her that
Dick was feeling for her hands, which she resolutely put behind her out
of his way, and as he could not find them, he wound his arm around her
and held her fast, while he told her how much he loved her and wanted
her for his wife.

'I believe I have loved you,' he said, 'ever since the day I first saw
you at the inquest, and you flew so like a little cat at Peterkin when
he attacked Harold. I used to be awfully jealous of Hal, for fear he
would find in you more than a sister, but that was before he and Maude
got so thick together. I guess that's a sure thing, and it makes me bold
to tell you what I have. Why are you so silent Jerrie? Don't you love me
a little? That is all I ask at first, for I know I can make you love me
a great deal in time. I will be so kind and true to you. Jerrie, and
father, and mother, and Nina will be so glad. Speak to me, Jerrie, and
say you will try to love me, if you do not now.'

As he talked he had drawn the girl closer to him, where she sat rigid as
a stone, wholly unmindful of the little puddles of water--and they were
puddles now--running down her back, for Dick had tilted the parasol in
such a manner that one of the points rested upon the nape of her neck.
But she did not know it, or think of any thing except the pain she must
inflict upon the young man wooing her so differently from what Tom
Tracy had done. No hint had Dick given of the honor he was conferring
upon her, or of his own and his family's superiority to her family and
herself. All the honor and favor to be conferred were on her side; all
the love and humility on his, and for one brief moment the wild wish
flashed upon her:

'Oh, if I could love him as a wife ought, I might he so happy, for he is
all that is noble and good and true.'

But this was while she was smarting under the few words he had said of
Harold and Maude. He, too, believed it a settled thing between the
two--everybody believed it--and why should she waste her love upon one
who did not care for her as she did for him? Why not encourage a love
for Dick, who stood next in her heart to Harold? Questioning herself
thus until there flushed upon her the recollection of Harold's voice as
it had spoken to her tha