"That is all I wish you to say, my dear little girl," I replied, kissing her white neck and shoulders; "now then, listen. I shall return from India in about two years time, if then we are both of the same mind as now, we will begin to talk about the wedding-day. What do you say to that?" "Yes, dear Frank." "Thank you, dearest; now look up one minute." The reader, if he pleases, may supply in this place a few interjectional kisses from his imagination. With my arm around Ellen's slender waist, we walked down the shady alleys of the garden in search of Langley and Mary, but for a while were unsuccessful; at last I caught a sight of Mary's white dress in a distant arbor. We approached the bower unperceived by its occupants, and were upon the point of entering, but we luckily discovered in time that we should be altogether _de trop_. Langley was on his knees before the coquettish Mary, making love in his most grandiloquent style. "Most adorable creature," quoth my romantic shipmate, thumping his right side, "you lacerate my heart by your obdurate cruelty!" "Get up off your knees, you foolish boy," answered the mischievous girl; "you will certainly stain the knees of your white trowsers." "Oh! divine goddess! hear me!" persisted my chum, magnanimously disregarding the welfare of his unwhisperables in the present crisis. "You idolatrous sailor remember the first commandment." "The devil fly away with the first commandment!" cried poor Langley, sorely vexed. "Most lovely of human beings," he continued with a deep groan, which he intended to be a pathetic sigh, "my heart is on fire." "May be you've got the fever, William," suggested Mary; "are you in _much_ pain?" "Yes, great pain," said Bill, with another heart-rending groan. "Well, then, rise, I insist--Lord! if anybody should catch us in this predicament!" "Hadn't we better go away?" whispered Ellen, blushing for her sister's sake. "No, no," I replied, "let's stay and see the fun." "Not till I persuade you to relent," replied Langley to Mary's oft-repeated request. "Yes you will. Get up off your knees immediately, or I vow I'll box your ears." "Strike!" cried Langley, with a theatrical air and tone, at the same time unbuttoning his vest, "strike! and wound the heart which beats for you alone!" _Slap_--came Mary's delicate hand across the cheek of her disconsolate lover, with a force which brought an involuntary "ouch!" from his lips. "Get up, I say!" _Whack_--_slap_--came two more blows, first on one side of his head and then on the other. "By G----d! madam!" sputtered Langley, rising in a rage, "I wish you were a man for half a minute." "Why," said Mary, "in that case you couldn't make love to me with any sort of propriety. Hold, hold, Willy, dear! don't go off angry; sit down here, I insist; nay, now, I'll box your ears again if you don't obey me; there, you'll feel perfectly cool in a moment. For shame! Bill, to get angry at a love-tap from a lady!"