"If you find you have made a mistake," she said, solemnly, "remember you are not bound,--not bound one instant after you see how blind you've been." "I am glad to be bound to you," he returned, as solemnly as she had spoken,--"grateful beyond words, Caro, as time will prove to you." The girl suddenly took the man's hands, and held them fast, looking earnestly in his face as she did so. Then she said, nearly in a whisper: "Yes, I love you, Rodney." But the instant she had uttered those words, she was aware that he had not spoken thus, and a scorching blush rose to her face, and burned there until she was almost suffocated with it. "Bless you for that! Oh, you don't know how I bless you for that!" exclaimed Lawrence, quickly. "And I love you with a love that lasts,--that means something,--that takes hold on life." He spoke fervently. He had his arm about Caro now. His eyes were shining. It was at this moment that a small figure in a naval suit appeared on the outside of the piazza, at the farther end of it. This figure noiselessly vaulted over the railing, and as noiselessly came forward. Within a few yards Leander paused, with his hands thrust to the very depths of his pockets, and his small legs wide apart. His eyes were what romance writers used to call "glued" to the two standing there. His mouth was stretched in an appreciative grin. Directly it changed from a grin to a round shape, and a shrill whistle was emitted from it. The two started. Lawrence wheeled round, frowning. He subdued his first impulse, which was to take that atom and fling him over the railing. Leander nodded amicably. "How de do?" he inquired. "I'm pretty well, thank ye," answered Lawrence. The boy looked with a new and curious interest at his sister. "Was she in love?" he was asking himself. And he immediately put the question aloud: "I say, sis, are you in love? Is that why you 'n' Rodney were huggin' so?" "Hold your tongue," Lawrence promptly commanded. "All right." Then, contemplatively, "I s'pose you 'n' sis are spoons, ain't you? That's what the new chambermaid 'n' the coachman are. He told me the other day that he 'n' she were spoons. They were huggin', too. And I asked him about it." "I'll swear you asked him about it," responded Lawrence. Then the young man made a diversion. He walked forward, and laid hold of Leander's shoulder. "I heard you found a ring," he said. The boy puckered his face, and gazed up at the face above him. "You bet," he replied at last. "Prove property and pay for this advertisement, _and_--fork over the fifty dollars,--that is, if you want her." At this stage in the conversation, Leander's sister escaped to her own room, where she sat for a long time by the window, looking off on the bay. Below she heard the murmur of voices, the shrill tones of her brother, and the deeper tones of Rodney.