“I am poor and obscure,” said he, “and I am unfortunate enough to love--to love the daughter of a distinguished family--to love you--you. What is to be the conclusion of the story--my love story?--the conclusion rests with you.” Miss Quartz had mastered the literary technicalities of various sorts of proposals and acceptances--it had been Mr. Richmond’s pleasing duty during the month to keep the members of his class abreast of that important incident in the making of fiction known as The Proposal. She carried out the technicalities of the “business” of the part of the addressee to the letter--that is to say, she became suffused with a delicate pink--only she became a very peony, as she looked coyly down to the paper on her desk. She put her ungloved hand an inch or two nearer to his, raising her eyes to his, for a moment. He glanced round the room, and having reassured himself, he laid his hand gently on hers. “Dear child,” he said. “I have greatly dared--I have greatly dared. You will never regret it. Your novel will rank with ‘Esmond’ and ‘The Virginians’ and ‘Ben Hur’--------” “And Kate Douglas Wiggin?” she cried. “Oh, Mr. Richmond, if you promise me that I shall be alluded to as the Kate Douglas Wiggin of Nebraska I’ll just go down on my knees and worship you.” “Ah,” he said with a smile. “She has never written an historical novel. She has made books, but never an Epoch. ‘The White Rose’ will be an Epoch-making book.” “The girl’s eyes filled with tears. Such a future as he promised her was too dazzling to be viewed except through such a dimness. “Come to my aunt’s for tea to-night,” she whispered. “The Daniel Webster boarding-house, Guildford Street. My money is in my own hands. Sixty thousand dollars.” “The legitimate end of the story has come--you have solved the question,” he murmured. He rose and returned to his desk. Sixty thousand dollars--twelve thousand pounds. He had calculated on five millions. Sixty thousand--well, it was better than nothing. And that insolent girl, Amber Severn, would know that all girls were not like her--that was something too.