He was off like the wind, and we could hear him going rapidly down the walk, his very step indicative of buoyant life, and vigor, and elasticity. I did not say anything to Gertie, but left her alone, while I attended to some household duties. When I returned to her after the lapse of an hour, I found her asleep on the lounge, with a troubled expression on her face and a tear on her eyelashes. The carriage from the hill was at the gate, Robert Macpherson and Emma were coming up to the door, and so I woke her and made her ready for them. Emma was paler than usual, but there was something in the expression of her face which made her prettier than I had ever seen her before. She was quite recovered, and she was in almost as good spirits as Godfrey had been, while Robert’s eyes followed her with an expression which set me to wondering if everything had been turned topsy-turvy by that accident in the river. I had a lily I wished to show Robert, who was something of a florist, and asked him into the garden. “Yes, that’s a good old Ettie,—keep him as long as you can. I want to see Gertie alone,” Emma whispered to me, and as soon as we were gone she went up to Gertie and said: “Guess now what has happened! Robert wants _me_ to be his wife,—and I thought all the while it was Julia! He said so last night, and would have told me before but for the misfortune of his birth, which he thought I might not like. He says you know about it, and so I come to you first of all. Of course I’d rather his mother had been a lady born, and I do not quite like the thought of those Lyles and Nesbits. That’s the Schuyler and Rossiter of me, while the woman in me says: ‘I do not care; a man is a man for a’ that.’” Gertie was surprised, for she too had supposed it was Julia whom Robert preferred, but she was very glad to find herself mistaken, and heartily echoed Emma’s sentiment, “A man’s a man for a’ that.” “But what will your father say?” she asked, and Emma replied; “I don’t know. I hope Glenthorpe will outweigh the Lyles. Robert will tell him to-night. There, he is coming, and I must go. Good-by, and come home as quick as you can. Tell Ettie, if you like.” She kissed us both, as Godfrey had done, while Robert shook hands with Gertie, who said: “I am so glad. I supposed all the while it was Julia, or I should not have thought it could make any difference. God bless you both.” We did not expect Godfrey till after lunch, but he surprised us by coming in just as we were taking our seats at the dinner table. He was in town, he said, and thought it a waste of labor to go home and then back again, and so he came directly to our house, and helping himself to a chair, he drew up to the table beside Gertie, to whom he devoted himself with all the assiduity of an ardent and accepted lover. I think he looked upon himself in that light, and was not in the least prepared for the disappointment awaiting him.