"If anything had happened to _you_--!" said I, and for a moment we looked at each other in a sort of blind horror. Presently he smiled. "But we're as right as rain!" said he. "We're young, all life before us--and we love each other--Thank God!" he ended, on a deep, grave note. "Thank God!" said I, and put my arms up to him. When he raised his head, his eyes were shining. "My beloved wife!" said Bill. I put him from me for a moment--looked into his eyes. "Please," I said, very low, "it's all so new--and a little terrifying. I--I didn't know I could feel like this. Will you let us go on just as we are--for a little while--? Perhaps I'm silly--but--I can't help it. Please," I begged, "won't you let me get a little used to you--?" His eyes were very tender now. "Of course," he said. "You know that." "A real engagement!" said I happily. "That's the best thing, after all," said Bill, laughing, "married first, and then engaged for the rest of one's life!" He held me very closely. "I'll cherish you always," he said, "all my life long. I've wanted you so--Mavis. You'll never know. God bless you, my dearest!" "Father," I said in my heart, "you were right: you knew. I'm so happy--" And my heart answered me. "Where are you going?" said I, sternly, to my husband, as he laid me back on my pillows and turned away. "Outside," said he, with the old, impish grin, "to dance a fandango on the lawn! And, incidentally, to put on some clothes and pretend an intelligent interest--which I don't in the least experience--in Harry Reynolds destroyed sugar-crop. Bless those incendiary natives!" he added, piously. "Back soon?" I asked. "Don't look at me like that!" said Bill severely, "or I won't be able to go! As your physician I forbid you to endanger my pulse. It is hardly normal now. Try and rest, dear, and when I come back I want to see more steady color in your cheeks. You've had a pretty bad shock, Mavis--" "I should say I have!" I said, in tones I vainly tried to infuse with self-pity. "How about yourself?" He blew me a kiss--just a mean, tiny one--and vanished without answering, but poked his head in at the door immediately after, to ask, seriously, "Shall I bring you a statement of your indebtedness to me when I return, Mrs. Denton?" "I wish I'd cost you more," said I, crossly. "You just wait--I'm going to buy a trousseau when I get to New York that will put you in the poor-house. I'm afraid," said I primly, "that I must ask you to wait for your settlement, Doctor." "I'll keep you so in debt," he declared, "that you will never be able to struggle out, and you'll pay me in love, young person, for every sleepless night I've spent, and every swear I've sworn behind closed doors, and for every time I've wanted to take you in my arms and kiss you till you cried for mercy--" "I think--I shouldn't have cried," I said, reflectively. He was back in the room again.