do know it--how soon
can it be?"

"Why are you asking me?" Before he had time to reply she went on, "Is it
because papa has got into trouble?"

He was ready with his answer. "It's because he's got into trouble that
I'm asking you to-day; but I've been meaning to ask you for years and
years."

She uttered something like a little cry. "Oh, Thor, is that true?"

The fact that he must make so many reservations impelled him to be the
more ardent in what he could affirm without putting a strain on his
conscience. "I can swear it to you, Lois, if you want me to. It began as
long ago as when I was a youngster and you were a little girl."

She clasped her hands tightly. "Oh, Thor!"

"Since that time there hasn't been a--" He was going to say a day, but
he made a rapid correction--"there hasn't been a year when I haven't
looked forward to your being my wife." He allowed a few seconds to pass
before adding, "I should think you'd have seen it."

She answered as well as a joyous distress would let her. "I did see it,
Thor--or thought I did--for a while. Only latterly--"

"You mustn't judge by--latterly," he broke in, hastily. "Latterly I've
had a good deal to go through."

"Oh, you poor Thor! Tell me about it."

Nothing would have eased his heart more effectively than to have poured
out to her the whole flood of his confidence. It was what he was
accustomed to doing when in her company. He could talk to her with more
open heart than he had ever been able to talk to any one. It would have
been a relief to tell her the whole story of Rosie Fay; and if he
refrained from taking this course, it was only because he reminded
himself that it wouldn't "do." It obviously wouldn't "do." He was unable
to say why it wouldn't "do" except on the general ground that there were
things a man had better keep to himself. He curbed, therefore, his
impulse toward frankness to say:

"I can't--because there are things I shall never be able to talk about.
If I could speak of them to any one it would be to you."

She looked at him anxiously. "It's nothing that I have to do with, is
it?"

"Only in as far as you have to do with everything that concerns me."

Tears in her eyes could not keep her face from growing radiant. "Oh,
Thor, how can I believe it?"

"It's true, Lois. I can hardly go back to the time when, in my own mind,
it hasn't been true."

"But I'm not worthy of it," she said, half tearfully.

"I hope it isn't a question of wort