"Yes, my darling, with all my heart and soul!" "Then you must build up fame, and get money, and go to London to live, for I do not love this country life. Only think, to live in London among the _literati_ and the noted people! We will surely do that Earle?" CHAPTER XVI. A BETROTHAL DAY. Gregory Leslie, seated before his easel, saw the young couple returning to the house. No need to tell him what had happened. The triumphant lover was in every line of Earle's face. Gregory Leslie sighed. Earle had won the most beautiful girl in England for his wife; but the artist was a deep student of human nature, and he read in Doris a disposition intensely worldly and selfish, an ambition that nothing could satisfy, a moral weakness that would break a promise as easily as Samson broke the seven green withes. Doris ran away from Earle into the garden, and left him to enter the house alone. Gregory was the first one he saw. "Wish me joy!" he cried, exultantly. "With all my heart. What you have won, may you keep." "I have no fear," said Earle, the gentleman. "She loves me." "You have the original; I the picture. This picture will wake the curiosity of the world," said Gregory, looking at his work. "But you will not tell who or where is the original? I do not wish my Doris to be pursued by a crowd of idle, curious people." "On honor, no," said Gregory, holding out his hand. Then Earle went on to find Mark and Patty. Patty heard the news with a bewildered shake of her head. "There's no counting on Doris," she said. "I thought she was playing with you. We shall see how it will turn out. I hope you will be happy." "I am sure they will," spoke up Mattie, and left the room. "There's your mother to be consulted," said Mark. "She will be ready for anything that makes me happy." "And Doris is too young. She cannot be married for a year yet," said Mark, decidedly. "She must have time to know her mind and to settle herself. If it were Mattie now, I'd feel different. Mattie is two years older, and she has a steadier nature." "But it's not Mattie, thank fortune, for Mattie is my right hand," spoke up Patty, sharply; for she had read a little of her own child's cherished secret. Earle was so overjoyed to get the promise of Doris, that he counted the year of probation a day, and saw nothing of Gregory Leslie's incredulity, of Patty's hesitation, of the anxiety of Mark, or of Mattie's shy withdrawing. These young lovers are selfish, even the best of them.