's
back, took a chair and placed it close beside the head of the sofa on
which Nora was sitting. "Miss Rowley," he said, "you and I have known
each other now for some months, and I hope you have learned to regard
me as a friend."

"Oh, yes, indeed," said Nora, with some spirit.

"It has seemed to me that we have met as friends, and I can most
truly say for myself, that I have taken the greatest possible
pleasure in your acquaintance. It is not only that I admire you very
much,"--he looked straight before him as he said this, and moved
about the point of the stick which he was holding in both his
hands,--"it is not only that,--perhaps not chiefly that, though I do
admire you very much; but the truth is, that I like everything about
you."

Nora smiled, but she said nothing. It was better, she thought, to let
him tell his story; but his mode of telling it was not without its
efficacy. It was not the simple praise which made its way with her
but a certain tone in the words which seemed to convince her that
they were true. If he had really found her, or fancied her to be what
he said, there was a manliness in his telling her so in the plainest
words that pleased her much.

"I know," continued he, "that this is a very bald way of telling--of
pleading--my cause; but I don't know whether a bald way may not
be the best, if it can only make itself understood to be true. Of
course, Miss Rowley, you know what I mean. As I said before, you have
all those things which not only make me love you, but which make me
like you also. If you think that you can love me, say so; and, as
long as I live, I will do my best to make you happy as my wife."

There was a clearness of expression in this, and a downright
surrender of himself, which so flattered her and so fluttered her
that she was almost reduced to the giving of herself up because she
could not reply to such an appeal in language less courteous than
that of agreement. After a moment or two she found herself remaining
silent, with a growing feeling that silence would be taken as
conveying consent. There floated quickly across her brain an idea of
the hardness of a woman's lot, in that she should be called upon to
decide her future fate for life in half a minute. He had had weeks to
think of this,--weeks in which it would have been almost unmaidenly
in her so to think of it as to have made up her mind to accept the
man. Had she so made up her mind, and had he not come to her, wher