St. George laughed. "Old Darbyshire? Well, perhaps he is not far wrong. Any way, love's free, I believe. Were I her father, Brook should prove his eligibility to propose for her, or else give her up. Good-day, Todhetley; good-day, Johnny." St. George went off at a quick pace. Tod, looking after him, made his comments. "Should not wonder but he wins her. He is the better man of the two----" "The better man!" I interrupted. "As to means, at any rate: and see what a fine upright free-limbed fellow he is! And where will you find one more agreeable?" "In tongue, nowhere; I admit that. But I wouldn't give up William Brook for him, were I Ellin Delorane." That St. George was in love with her grew as easy to be seen as is the round moon in harvest. Small blame to him. Who could be in the daily companionship of a sweet girl like Ellin Delorane, and not learn to love her, I should like to know? Tod told St. George he wished he had his chance. At last St. George spoke to her. It was in April, eighteen months after Brook's departure. Ellin was in the garden at sunset, busy with the budding flowers, when St. George came to join her, as he sometimes did, on leaving the office for the day. Aunt Hester sat sewing at the open glass-doors of the window. "I have been gardening till I am tired," was Ellin's greeting to him, as she sat down on a bench near the sweetbriar bush. "You look pale," said Mr. St. George. "You often do look pale now, Ellin: do you think you can be quite well?" "Pray don't let Aunt Hester overhear you," returned Ellin in covert, jesting tones. "She begins to have fancies, she says, that I am not as well as I ought to be, and threatens to call in Mr. Darbyshire." "You need some one to take care of you; some one near and dear to you, who would study your every look and action, who would not suffer the winds of heaven to blow upon your face too roughly," went on St. George, plunging into Shakespeare. "Oh, Ellin, if you would suffer me to be that one----" Her face turned crimson; her lips parted with emotion; she rose up to interrupt him in a sort of terror. "Pray do not continue, Mr. St. George. If--if I understand you rightly, that you--that you----" "That I would be your loving husband, Ellin; that I would shelter you from all ill until death us do part. Yes, it is nothing less than that." "Then you must please never to speak of such a thing again; never to think of it. Oh, do not let me find that I have been mistaking you all this time," she added in uncontrollable agitation: "that while I have ever welcomed you as my friend--and his--you have been swayed by another motive!" He did not like the agitation; he did not like the words; and he bit his lips, striving for calmness. "This is very hard, Ellin."