"And so do I; except for one little thing;" I answered, "and you know well what that little thing is." "Yes, a very little thing indeed," she replied, taking good care not to look at me; "the smallest thing in all the world, no doubt." "Do try to have some particle of reason;" I exclaimed. "I am all pure reason itself," she replied. "You are all pure beauty, and warm heart;" I answered; "and what is the good of saying, that you don't care about me?" "Did I say that? I don't believe I ever did. I was only trying to think it, when you behaved so badly. But if I said that, it was a great story, Tommy." "You know what the penalty for a story is;" I answered. And her eyes shone with sunny tears, while she paid it. "Darling sweet," I said, for I never touched her, without being carried quite beyond myself; "all I was waiting for, was to know, what last letter I might put here. I want to put a 'U;' I so long to put a 'U;' the one you in the world that just suits me to a T. 'Laura Towers Upmore.' I won't do it, without your full permission." "Well, dear," she replied, after some consideration; "Roly has given his full consent now; and my dear mother loves you, like her own son. And I--well, never mind about me; I am nobody. Only I feel, that your time should not be wasted, with all the great things that you will have to do, after saving the Country, to begin with. So perhaps it would be wiser, dear, to put me down with 'U.'" Now what do you suppose that I did next? Embraced her, kissed her, shed tears with her? As young people do, when they agree to get married, to practise for the time to come. Nay, such things are not to be talked about; or why were trees made, and benches, and moss (the very essence, and symbol of silence, all the year), and houses far off, to show what is to come, yet not blink a window beyond their own doors? The real thing that I did--which will stir every female heart, tenfold more than chastest salutations--was done with a thumb and finger pushed, on each side simultaneously, to the bottom of my double-breasted waistcoat pockets. "Look at these, Laura, while I put our names into a true lover's knot;" I said, just as if it was a pair of blue kidney-beans I was showing. "They are come to be eclipsed, my darling, by the brilliance of your eyes." "Why, they are amethysts! But I never saw such amethysts. They seem to have such a lot of light inside them!" "So they have, Laura. But what a cold light, darling, compared with what comes from your heart into mine!" * * * * *