s also a reason why I made my profession in Montreal. I wanted
to do it without delay, it is true; I also wanted to do it quietly. I
mean everybody shall know; but I wished you to be the first."

There followed a silence. Things rushed into and over Lois's mind with
such a sweep and confusion, that she hardly knew what she was thinking
or feeling. All her positions were knocked away; all her assumptions
were found baseless; her defences had been erected against nothing; her
fears and her hopes were alike come to nought. That is, _bien entendu_,
her old fears and her old hopes; and amid the ruins of the latter new
ones were starting, in equally bewildering confusion. Like little green
heads of daffodils pushing up above the frozen ground, and fair
blossoms of hepatica opening beneath a concealing mat of dead leaves.
Ah, they would blossom freely by and by; now Lois hardly knew where
they were or what they were.

Seeing her utterly silent and moveless, Mr. Dillwyn did probably the
wisest thing he could do, and drove on. For some time the horses
trotted and the bells jingled; and by too swift approaches that
wilderness of lights which marked the city suburb came nearer and
nearer. When it was very near and they had almost entered it, he drew
in his reins again and the horses tossed their heads and walked.

"Lois, I think it is fair I should have another answer to my question
now."

"What question?" she asked hurriedly.

"You know, I was so daring as to ask to have the care of you for the
rest of your natural life--or of mine. What do you say to it?"

Lois said nothing. She could not find words. Words seemed to tumble
over one another in her mind,--or thoughts did.

"What answer are you going to give me?" he asked again, more gravely.

"You know, Mr. Dillwyn," said Lois stammeringly, "I never thought,--I
never knew before,--I never had any notion, that--that--that you
thought so."--

"Thought _so?_--about what?"

"About me."

"I have thought so about you for a great while."

Silence again. The horses, being by this time pretty well exercised,
needed no restraining, and walked for their own pleasure. Everything
with Lois seemed to be in a whirl.

"And now it becomes necessary to know what you think about me," Mr.
Dillwyn went on, after that pause.

"I am very glad--" Lois said tremulously.

"Of what?"

"That you are a Christian."

"Yes, but," said he, half laughing, "that is not the immediate matter
in