ad better go back and
be an old maid at the Mandarins."

"And what do you think yourself, Nora?"

"What do I think? As far as I can understand, young ladies are not
allowed to think at all. They have to do what their papas tell them.
That will do, Hugh. You can talk without taking hold of me."

"It is such a time since I have had a hold of you,--as you call it."

"It will be much longer before you can do so again, if I go back
to the Islands with papa. I shall expect you to be true, you know;
and it will be ten years at the least before I can hope to be home
again."

"I don't think you mean to go, Nora."

"But what am I to do? That idea of yours of walking out to the
next church and getting ourselves married sounds very nice and
independent, but you know that it is not practicable."

"On the other hand, I know it is."

"It is not practicable for me, Hugh. Of all things in the world I
don't want to be a Lydia. I won't do anything that anybody shall ever
say that your wife ought not to have done. Young women when they are
married ought to have their papas' and mammas' consent. I have been
thinking about it a great deal for the last month or two, and I have
made up my mind to that."

"What is it all to come to, then?"

"I mean to get papa's consent. That is what it is to come to."

"And if he is obstinate?"

"I shall coax him round at last. When the time for going comes, he'll
yield then."

"But you will not go with them?" As he asked this he came to her and
tried again to take her by the waist; but she retreated from him, and
got herself clear from his arm. "If you are afraid of me, I shall
know that you think it possible that we may be parted."

"I am not a bit afraid of you, Hugh."

"Nora, I think you ought to tell me something definitely."

"I think I have been definite enough, sir. You may be sure of this,
however;--I will not go back to the Islands."

"Give me your hand on that."

"There is my hand. But, remember;--I had told you just as much
before. I don't mean to go back. I mean to stay here. I mean;--but I
do not think I will tell you all the things I mean to do."

"You mean to be my wife?"

"Certainly;--some day, when the difficulty about the chairs and
tables can settle itself. The real question now is,--what am I to do
with myself when papa and mamma are gone?"

"Become Mrs. H. Stanbury at once. Chairs and tables! You shall have
chairs and tables as many as you want. You won't be to