"Grace," he whispered, "you would create a pulse in a marble statue to-night. You never looked more lovely." "There is a glamour on your eyes, Warren," she replied; and yet the quick flash of joy that came into her face proved the power of his words, which still had all the exquisite charm of novelty. "It's the glamour that will last while I do," he responded, earnestly. "Are not this scene and hour perfect? and you are the gem of it all. I don't see how a man could ask or wish for more than I have to-night, except that it might last forever." A shadow passed over his face, and he added, presently, "To think that after a few weeks I must return to those blasted mines! One thing is settled, however. I shall close out my interests there as speedily as possible; and were it not for my obligations to others, I'd never go near them again. I have money enough twice over, and am a fool to miss one hour with you." "You will be all the happier, Warren, if you close up your interests in the West in a manly, business-like way. I always wish to be as proud of you as I am now. What's more, I don't believe in idle men, no matter how rich they are. I should be worried at once if you had nothing to do but sit around and make fine speeches. You'd soon weary of the sugar-plum business, and so should I. I have read somewhere that the true way to keep a man a lover is to give him plenty of work." "Will you choose my work for me?" "No; anything you like, so it is not speculation." "I think I'll come and be your father's gardener." "If you do," she replied, with a decisive little nod, "you will have to rake and hoe so many hours a day before you can have any dinner." "But you, fair Eve, would bring your fancy-work, and sit with me in the shade." "The idea of a gardener sitting in the shade, with weeds growing on every side." "But you would, my Eve." "Possibly, after I had seen that you had earned your bread by the 'perspiration of your brow,' as a very nice maiden lady, a neighbor of ours, always phrases it." "That shall be my calling as soon as I can get East again. Major, I apply for the situation of gardener as soon as I can sell out my interests in the mines." "I have nothing to do with it," was the reply. "Grace commands this post, and while here you are under her orders." "And you'll find out, too, what a martinet I am," she added. "There's no telling how often I'll put you under arrest and mount guard over you myself. So!" "What numberless breaches of discipline there will be!" Lovers' converse consists largely in tone and glance, and these cannot be written; and were this possible, it could have but the slenderest interest to the reader.