"Dane Peignton! Oh, Mary, why didn't you guess? I've cared always-- from the very first hour I saw him, and I knew he cared too, I was sure of it--and yet, one _can't_ be sure! When one cares so much, it seems too good to be true. He is so different from anyone else in this stupid little place. He belongs to the world, and to people like... like the people I met to-night, not to our poor, prosy little set. He was the most popular man there. He talked, and they listened; he made things go. They all liked him, and admired him. He has been here only a few months, and they all treat him as a friend, and oh, Mary! you know what they are like to _us_? If it hadn't been for him I should have felt like a fish out of water. They gushed, of course, they always gush, but one felt so apart. Old Sir Henry sat on my other side, and persisted in mistaking me for Miss Pell, and talked of things I knew nothing about. I am sure they were all wondering what on earth I was doing up there. What will they think to-morrow when they hear! I'm going to announce it at once. I want everyone to know. I'd like to shout it from the church tower... Oh, Mary, isn't it splendid? Don't you think I am the luckiest girl... Don't you think it is wonderful that he should care for me?" "Yes... Does he?" There was an incredulity in the voice in which the words were put which arrested Teresa in her flow of eloquence. She stared with lips agape, her blue eyes darkening in amaze. "_Does he_? Does he care?... You ask me that! What are you dreaming about? If he didn't care, why in the world should he ask me to be his wife? We are not rich; we are not grand. Ours is not exactly a _lively_ family for a man to marry into. He might have chosen a girl in such a different position. Why should he choose me?" Mary pulled the blankets over her thin chest, and appeared to consider the matter, her eyes resting on her sister's face with a coolly critical scrutiny. "Perhaps because--you wanted him to! You generally do manage to get what you want, don't you, Teresa?" Teresa straightened herself with an air of offence. "There was no _management_ about this, anyhow! Whatever I wanted, I didn't give myself away. I never ran after him and made myself cheap, as some girls do. It's horrid of you to suggest such a thing. Did I ever show that I cared for him when he was here? I can't have done, or you would not have been so surprised when you heard of our engagement." "I knew you cared for him. You had a perfectly different face when he was in the room. We all knew. We were sorry for you, because we thought he didn't return it. Mother was thinking of sending you to Aunt Emma's." "Oh, she was, was she!" Teresa tossed her head once more, but the inner happiness was too great to allow of more than a passing irritation. She stretched out her hand, and gripped her sister by the arm.