ell me how I found it out but I
knew you loved me?"

"Many a thing was to tell you that, Una dear. Sure my eyes were never
off you, whenever you wor near me; an' wherever you were, there was
I certain to be too. I never missed any public place if I thought you
would be at it, an' that merely for the sake of seein' you. An', now
will you tell me why it was that I could 'a sworn you lov'd me?"

"You have answered for us both," she replied. "As for me, if I only
chance to hear your name mentioned my heart would beat; if the talk was
about you I could listen to nothing else, and I often felt the color
come and go on my cheek."

"Una, I never thought I could be born to such happiness. Now that I know
that you love me, I can hardly think that it was love I felt for you all
along; it's wonderful--it's wonderful!"

"What is so wonderful?" she inquired.

"Why, the change that I feel since knowin' that you love me; since I had
it from your own lips, it has overcome me--I'm a child--I'm anything,
anything you choose to make me; it was never love--it's only since I
found you loved me that my heart's burnin' as it is."

"I'll make you happyr if I can," she replied, "and keep you so, I hope."

"There's one thing that will make me still happier than I am," said
Connor.

"What is it? If it's proper and right I'll do it."

"Promise me that if I live you'll never marry any one else than me."

"You wish then to have the promise all on one side," she replied with a
smile and a blush, each as sweet as ever captivated a human heart.

"No, no, no, my darling Una, _acushla gra gal machree_, no! I will
promise the same to you."

She paused, and a silence of nearly a minute ensued.

"I don't know that it's right, Connor; I have taken one wrong step as it
is, but, well as I love you, I won't take another; whatever I do I must
feel that it's proper. I'm not sure that this is."

"Don't you say you love me, Una?"

"I do; you know I do."

"I have only another question to ask; could you, or would you, love me
as you do, and marry another?"

"I could not, Connor, and would not, and will not. I am ready to
promise; I may easily do it; for God knows the very thought of marrying
another, or being deprived of you, is more than I can bear."

"Well, then," returned her lover, seizing her hand, "I take God to
witness that, whilst you are alive an' faithful to me, I will never
marry any woman but yourself. Now," he continued, "put your ri