"Yes," she answered, with a smile, "you are perfect in that. You might give lessons in amatory deportment." "Out of a full heart the mouth speaketh." "Ah! does it? May not a lover be too _point-de-vice_ in his speeches as well as in his accouterments? Father Stafford came to me pale, yes, trembling, and with rugged words." "I am not the man that Stafford is--save for my lady's favor." "And you came in confidence?" "You had let me hope." "You have known it for a long while. I don't trust you, you know, but I must. Will you treat me as you treated Kate?" "Slander!" cried he gayly. "I didn't 'treat' Kate. Kate 'treated' me." "Poor fellow!" He had sat down in a low chair close to hers, and she bent down and kissed him on the forehead. "At least, I don't think you'll like any one better than you like me, and I must be content with that." "I have worshiped you for years. Was ever beauty so exacting?" "With lucid intervals?" "Never a moment. A sense of duty once led me astray--dynastic considerations--a suitable cousin." "Yes; and I suppose a moonlight night." "_Pereant quae ante te!_ You know a little Latin?" "I think I'd better not just now." "You may want it for yourself, you know, with a change of gender. But we'll not bandy recriminations." "I wasn't joking." "Not when you began; but with me all your troubles shall end in jokes, and every tear in a smile. Claudia, I never knew you so alarmingly serious before." "Well, I won't be serious any more. The fatal deed is done!" "And I may say 'Claudia' now without fear of any one?" "You will be able to say it for about the next fifty years. I hope you won't get tired of it. Eugene, try to get tired of me last of all." "Never while I live! You are a perpetual refreshment." "A lofty function!" "And the spring of all my life. Let us be happy, dear, and never mind fifty years hence." "I will," she said; "and I am happy." "And, please God, you shall always be so. One would think it was a very dangerous thing to marry me!" "I will brave the danger." "There is none. I have found my goddess." The door opened suddenly, and Bob Territon entered at the very moment when Eugene was sealing his vow of homage. Bob was pleased to be playful. Holding his hands before his face, he turned and pretended to fly. "Come in, old man," cried Eugene, "and congratulate me!" "Oh! you have fixed it, have you?" "We have. Don't you think we shall do very well together?" Bob stood regarding them, his hands in his pockets. "Yes," he said at length, "I think you will. There's a pair of you." And he could never be persuaded to explain this utterance. But it is to be feared that the thought underlying it was one not over-complimentary to the happy lovers. And Bob knew them both very well. CHAPTER XV. An End and a Beginning.