"’Beloved,’ I said, ’is it possible that you can care for me? That what I have longed for, dreamed of, and despaired of ever attaining, is at last mine? I cannot realize it! I feel rather that I am in a trance, surrounded by a confusing, yet delightful mist.’ "’_I love you_.’ "’Say it again out loud that I can hear.’ "’I love you.’ "’But why--tell me why?’ "’I don’t know. Why do you love me? I cannot see that there can be anything to love in me. I suppose it is only because I am pretty!’ "’Beauty is only a veil which the soul looks through; how perfect then must be your soul, dearest!’ "Then came these unspoken words which puzzled me-- "’_What queer things men are!--but I like to hear him, and perhaps it is true; but if so, how horrid most women must be!_’ Then out loud--’_I fancy you will soon get tired of me._’ "’Tired! It makes me mad when I think of ever having an opportunity of getting tired--to have you with me always--to know that we can never be parted--to feel that death itself will only bring us closer: I almost wish that we could die now, for such great happiness makes me afraid something may come. Oh, Vera! you will always love me?’ "’Of course, dear!’ "Then this thought followed-- "’_I wish he would not talk about death; I hate death, I don’t want to die. It is quite nice enough to be here having some one loving and petting me, without thinking about the future. I wonder if he is going to kiss me? I thought men always kissed girls when they proposed to them!_’ "This was enough for me. I had been afraid to venture on what seemed so great a liberty, but now I moved forward and was about to kiss her, when to my surprise she drew away saying-- "’Oh, don’t! You frighten me!’ "’Why, dearest, you cannot be afraid of me? Will you not let me have just one when you know how I should prize it!’ "’No, I cannot really, not yet anyway; perhaps some day!’ "I was so afraid of offending her that I moved back, puzzled and discomfited, when once again I was conscious she was thinking. "’_How foolish he is!--it would have been much nicer to have been forced to give him one; he is so strong he could easily have held me back in the chair and made me do it._’ "This came as a whip for my inclinations, and I did as suggested under a storm of protests which soon died down, for I now found her thoughts were wandering between the condition of her hair and the probability of some one coming in from the billiard-room. "I think I have now described sufficiently our first moments of happiness, but I will own that before we were eventually disturbed I had begun to get not a little annoyed with my new power of perception, and began to wonder if after all we had arrived at a sufficient state of perfection to be always happily employed when using it. "The next half-hour which I spent with Vera’s father convinced me that often it might be useful in the cause of humility.