thal."

"And you intend to do this now?" Violet questioned.

"Certainly. You are not of age, are you, dear?"

"No; but, Wallace, they will never sanction it," Violet said, with
burning cheeks, but thinking it best to prepare him for the worst at the
outset.

"Because of my present poverty and humble position?" he question,
gravely.

"Yes, and money is their idol," the young girl frankly answered.

"Then, Violet, I do not think it will be right for me to bind you by any
promise to become my wife, until I have earned a position and a
competence that will meet their approval and warrant me in asking for
your hand."

Violet put him a little from her, and stood erect and proud before him.

"You do not need to bind me by any promise," she said, in a low,
thrilling tone, "for when I gave you my love, I gave you myself as well.
I am yours while I live. In confessing my love for you, I have virtually
bound myself to you, and even if I am never your wife in name, I shall
be in soul until I die. You can ask the sanction of my sister and her
husband, as a matter of form. I know they will not give it; but they
have no moral right to come between us--they never shall! They are very
proud and ambitious; they hope"--and Violet colored crimson at the
confession--"to marry me to some rich man; but my heart and my hand are
mine to bestow upon whom I will; and, Wallace, they are yours, now and
forever."

Wallace regarded her with astonishment, while he wondered if there was
ever so strange a betrothal before.

He had asked no promise, but he felt that she could not have been more
surely bound to him if their marriage vows had already been
pronounced--at least, as far as her fidelity to him was concerned.

"I am young, I know," Violet went on, after a moment--"I am not yet
quite eighteen--and Wilhelm is my guardian. He can control my fortune
until I am twenty-one; but that need make no difference with our
relations. You will be true to me, I know, and I do not need to assure
you of my own faithfulness, I am sure. Meantime you will be working up
in your profession, and when I do reach my majority and come into
possession of my money, I can do as I like, without asking the consent
of any one."

"My faithful, true-hearted little woman, I had no idea there was such
reserve force beneath your gay, laughing exterior," Wallace returned,
tenderly. "What a royal gift you have bestowed upon me, my darling! I
accept it reverently, grat