Jerome grows impatient; he looks at his watch, and turns inquiringly towards the hill; and Mell flies back to the house as if pursued by fiery dragons. For if he but caught sight of her, if he but crooked his finger at her, she would go down there, and then--what then? Mell was not blind to her own weakness. The afternoon brought Rube, overwhelmingly happy, overwhelmingly devoted. She must take an airing with him in his brand new buggy; and while they scoured the country round about, Rube was making diligent inquiry as to how soon they might get married. Mell caught her breath, and, in the same breath, at a possible reprieve. "Won't you give me a little time to think?" she pleaded. "It has come so sudden!" "Hasn't it, though!" cried happy Rube. "Do you half realize the romance of the thing, Mellville? 'Tis like a page out of Knight-Errantry, the days of lances and standards, and blood-thrilling adventures, when warriors in steel swore by the Holy-rood, and won fair women's smiles by deeds of valor--something very unlike the prosaic happenings of this practical modern life. But yesterday a wandering pilgrim, to-day I have found a shrine. ''Tis a dream!' I thought, when I opened my eyes this morning, 'a dream, too sweet to be true! Rube, old fellow,' I said to myself, 'you've got something to live for now. You must look to your ways and improve upon the old ones. There's a dear little hand that belongs to you; there's a pair of blue eyes to watch for your coming; there's a sweet little woman who believes in you, God bless her! For her sake I will run the race of life like a man; for her sweet sake I will win it!'" This was the time for Mell to speak. She wanted to speak, but--she did not. There were just exactly six reasons why she did not. Here they are, all in a row: Reason Number One.--She was not quite sure of Jerome--quite sure, perhaps, in regard to his affections, but not his intentions. Love is much, but not everything, and a lover surrounded by difficulties is not to be depended upon matrimonially. Number Two.--She was as resolutely bent upon getting out of this mean, sordid life as ever, and what way was there but this way? Number Three.--Rube was rich, and Rube's wife would be rich, too. For her part, she was sick and tired of poverty. Poverty, in a world governed by wealth, is the most unpardonable sin in that world's decalogue. Number Four.--Rube was in "society," and what ambitious woman ever yet saved her soul outside the magic circle of society? Number Five.--Rube was an aristocrat, and Rube's wife would be _ex necessitate rei_, an aristocrat also. Her Creator, she believed, had intended her for an aristocrat; otherwise why had He endowed her with intellect, beauty, and the power to sway men's passions? Number Six.--The fact that she did not love Rube had, in reality, nothing to do with Rube's eligibility as a husband. He would make a very good one, an infinitely better one than none at all!