any more waiting,
will you?"

"Don't keep that position!" said Lois earnestly.

"It is the position I mean to keep all the rest of my life!"

But that set Lois to laughing, a little nervously no doubt, yet so
merrily that Philip could not but join in.

"Do I not owe everything to you?" he went on presently, with tender
seriousness. "You first set me upon thinking. Do you recollect your
earliest talk to me here in this room once, a good while ago, about
being _satisfied?_"

"Yes," said Lois, suddenly opening her eyes.

"That was the beginning. You said it to me more with your looks than
with your words; for I saw that, somehow, you were in the secret, and
had yourself what you offered to me. _That_ I could not forget. I had
never seen anybody 'satisfied' before."

"You know what it means now?" she said softly.

"To-day?-- I do!"

"No, no; I do not mean to-day. You know what I mean!" she said, with
beautiful blushes.

"I know. Yes, and I have it, Lois. But you have a great deal to teach
me yet."

"O no!" she said most unaffectedly. "It is you who will have to teach
me."

"What?"

"Everything."

"How soon may I begin?"

"How soon?"

"Yes. You do not think Mrs. Wishart's house is the best place, or her
company the best assistance for that, do you?"

"Ah, please get up!" said Lois.

But he laughed at her.

"You make me so ashamed!"

"You do not look it in the least. Shall I tell you my plans?"

"Plans!" said Lois.

"Or will you tell me your plans?"

"Ah, you are laughing at me! What do you mean?"

"You were confiding to me your plans of a little while ago;
Esterbrooke, and school, and all the rest of it. My darling!--that's
all nowhere."

"But,"--said Lois timidly.

"Well?"

"_That_ is all gone, of course. But--"

"You will let me say what you shall do?"

"I suppose you will."

"Your hand is in all my plans, from henceforth, to turn them and twist
them what way you like. But now let me tell you my present plans. We
will be married, as soon as you can accustom your self to the idea.
Hush!--wait. You shall have time to think about it. Then, as early as
spring winds will let us, we will cross to England."

"England?" cried Lois.

"Wait, and hear me out. There we will look about us a while and get
such things as you may want for travelling, which one can get better in
England than anywhere else. Then we will go over the Channel and see
Paris, and perhaps supplement purchases there.