"Bribed?" repeated Ruth, surprised, as she saw the indignation in his eyes. Then comprehending what he meant, she laughed, coloring a little also. "But I am not marrying him on your account; I am marrying him on my own. I am marrying because I like it, because I want to. You don't believe it? Why--look at me." She rose and stood before him. "I am the happiest girl in the world as I stand here! I should think you could see it for yourself?" And in truth her face was radiant. "If I have ever had any dreams of what I should like my life to be (and I have had plenty), they have all come true," she went on, with her hands behind her, looking at him reflectively. "Think of all I shall have! And of where I can go! And of what I can do! Why--there's no end of it!" "That is not the way to talk of marriage." "How one talks of it is not important. The important point is to be happy _in_ it, and that I shall be to the full--yes, to the full. His Grand shall have whatever she likes; and Dolly too. First of all, Dolly shall have a phaeton, so that she can drive to the woods every day. The house shall be put in order from top to bottom. And--oh, everything!" "Is that the way you talk to _him_?" But the sarcasm fell to the ground. "Precisely. Word for word," answered Ruth, lightly. And he saw that she spoke the truth. "He is much too old for you. If there were no other--" But Ruth interrupted him with a sort of sweet obstinacy. "That is for me to judge, isn't it?" "He is not at all the person you fancy he is." "I don't care what he is generally, what he is to other people; all I care for is what he is to me. And about that you know nothing; I am the one to know. He is nicer to me, and he always will be nicer, than Genevieve has ever been to _you_!" And turning, the girl walked across the room. "If I have been unhappy, that is the very reason I don't want you to be," answered her brother, after a moment's pause.