"Oh! oh! How dreadful! Why did you tell me? But you didn't--you never thought of marrying her, did you, Dick?" "I'm not so sure. She did!" He laughed, and seized her hands once more. "No, it is too bad! I won't tease you. It was Mamzelle Paddy, darling, to whom I confided my story, and who comforted me in her own sweet fashion. And she is your sister, and it is she who has brought us together! Bridgie, if I didn't love you with all my heart, I believe I should still have to marry you, for nothing else than to be Mamzelle's brother." But Bridgie did not affect to be jealous. She threw back her head, and smiled happily as she answered, "I'm thankful to hear you say it, for whoever marries me must love Pixie too. I can never leave her behind me!" CHAPTER THIRTY TWO. CONCLUSION. The news of Captain Victor's engagement and long attachment to the charming Miss O'Shaughnessy caused the greatest interest and excitement among the guests at the cottage, while his old friends rejoiced to see the happy brightness on his face. "Welcome home, Dick!" Mr Wallace cried, shaking him warmly by the hand. "Thankful to see you back again, instead of that other fellow who has been moping about in your clothes!" and Pixie commented on the announcement with her usual outspoken honesty. "I told ye it would come all right! I suppose it was you Bridgie was fretting about, when I thought it was the bills! She's got dips in her cheeks, only you can't see them now, because she's blushing. I'm glad you are coming into the family, but I don't see how you can ever be married! She can't be spared!" The Captain laughed at that statement, and vowed that she would have to be spared, and that at an early date; but a shadow fell across Bridgie's face, and as they sat alone in the garden she said anxiously-- "I am afraid I have been selfish, Dick! I can think of nothing but you, but, after all, Pixie was quite right--I can't possibly be spared for a long time to come. She won't be old enough to take charge of a house for three years at the soonest, and Jack has been so good and unselfish that I couldn't possibly leave him in the lurch. You have waited so long that you won't mind waiting a few years longer, will you?" "It doesn't seem to me a particularly logical conclusion, sweetheart!" the Captain said, smiling. "Personally I feel that I ought to be rewarded at once, but I won't make any promises one way or another until I have met your brother and heard his views. Don't worry yourself, you shan't do anything that you feel to be wrong, but I don't despair of finding a solution of the difficulty. When it is an alternative between that and waiting for you for three years, Bridgie, I shall be very, very resourceful!"