trying to wriggle out of things
which I despise, and you've never done that. And he simply had to come
back," she turned to her father, "and tell me himself just how it was.
And you said yourself, papa--or the same as said--that he had no right to
suppose I was interested in his affairs unless he--unless--And I should
never have forgiven him, if he hadn't told me then that he that he had
come back because he--felt the way he did. I consider that that
exonerated him for breaking his word, completely. If he hadn't broken his
word I should have thought he had acted very cruelly and--and strangely.
And ever since then, he has behaved so nobly, so honorably, so
delicately, that I don't believe he would ever have said anything
again--if I hadn't fairly forced him. Yes! Yes, I did!" she cried at a
movement of remonstrance from Burnamy. "And I shall always be proud of
you for it." Her father stared steadfastly at her, and he only lifted his
eyebrows, for change of expression, when she went over to where Burnamy
stood, and put her hand in his with a certain childlike impetuosity. "And
as for the rest," she declared, "everything I have is his; just as
everything of his would be mine if I had nothing. Or if he wishes to take
me without anything, then he can have me so, and I sha'n't be afraid but
we can get along somehow." She added, "I have managed without a maid,
ever since I left home, and poverty has no terrors for me!"

LXVIII.

General Triscoe submitted to defeat with the patience which soldiers
learn. He did not submit amiably; that would have been out of character,
and perhaps out of reason; but Burnamy and Agatha were both so amiable
that they supplied good-humor for all. They flaunted their rapture in her
father's face as little as they could, but he may have found their serene
satisfaction, their settled confidence in their fate, as hard to bear as
a more boisterous happiness would have been.

It was agreed among them all that they were to return soon to America,
and Burnamy was to find some sort of literary or journalistic employment
in New York. She was much surer than he that this could be done with
perfect ease; but they were of an equal mind that General Triscoe was not
to be disturbed in any of his habits, or vexed in the tenor of his
living; and until Burnamy was at least self-supporting there must be no
talk of their being married.

The talk of their being engaged was quite enough for the time. It
inc