"It is such a long time since she came to see me; I wonder if it was because you treated her so coldly the last time she was here." "I?" "You did not speak to her as you ought to have clone. You kept near me, and kept speaking to me, as if you imagined I was afraid she would take you away from me again. I know you did it to please me; but I could see something in her face, Will, that seemed to say that I needn’t be afraid, and that she wouldn’t come again. I should be sorry for that. Will you go and ask her to come again?" "Certainly, if you wish it." "And you will speak to her just as you speak to me. I can’t be jealous, Will—of her, because she did not try to take you from me." "I will go if you like, Dove," said Will; "but considering——" "I have considered" (with petulant haste). "I have nothing to do all day but lie and consider—and how many things I have considered within this day or two! I have altered my mind completely about the marriage. I won’t have you marry me, Will——" "But all the forms have been gone through——" She lay silent and meditative for some time, and then she said— "I am sorry to have given you so much trouble; but I should like to alter all my plans. You know the betrothals they have in French stories and in the operas: I should like to have a betrothal, Will, and all you will have to get for me is a big sheet of paper and a marriage-ring." How eagerly he accepted the offer! This pretty notion of hers, which was obviously only meant to please a passing whim, was so much more grateful to him than the marriage proposal, with its black background: "We will have it at once, Dove; and I think you are so well that you might drink a little champagne with us to grace the ceremony. Then I shall be able to call you my wife all the same, and you shall wear the wedding-ring; and then, you know, we can have the white horses and the carriages afterwards. But I am afraid the betrothal contract will be frightfully inaccurate; I don’t know the terms——" "Get a sheet of paper, Will, and I will tell you what to write down." He got the paper, and, at her dictation, wrote down the following words— "We two, loving each other very dearly, write our names underneath in token that we have become husband and wife, and as a pledge of our constant love." She smiled faintly when he placed the writing before her, and then she leant back on the pillow, with a satisfied air. Mrs. Anerley now came into the room, and Will, obeying some further commands, went off to see whether Annie Brunel was yet in her old lodgings, and also to purchase a wedding-ring for the ceremony on which Dove had set her heart. Miss Brunel’s landlady told Will that her lady-lodger would probably return the next day, with which piece of information he returned. He also showed Dove the wedding-ring; and she placed it on her finger, and kept it there.