“I could not send you away, Rupert.” “Oh, Virgie, I hope I shall not wake to find this all a dream,” he breathed, as he folded her closer in his arms, and drew her head upon his breast. “Do not fear,” the young girl returned, looking archly up into his eyes. “I assure you I have ample evidence that you are very much awake now, and, if you please, it won’t do to disarrange my hair _too_ much, for Grace Huntington is coming back in an hour to help me plan for Lady Dunforth’s ball that is to occur next week.” Rupert laughed, but released her, smoothing very tenderly the tresses that he had disarranged; then seating himself on the sofa beside her, he asked: “How will it be, my Virgie—can you be content to remain in England, or are you such a stanch American that you will pine for your native land?” “It is said that ‘home is where the heart is,’ and if _you_ are to live in England, I am afraid that America would not seem very home-like to me, even though it was my birthplace,” Virgie confessed, with a shy smile that was very bewildering. “Then you will not mind becoming an English matron?” Rupert observed, with a caress that again endangered the glossy tresses. “Yes, I think I shall mind it very much,” Virgie retorted; “so much that I should be unhappy to be anything else. Besides,” she added, more gravely, “my father was an Englishman.” “Is it possible? But I do not think that Alexander is an English name,” Rupert returned. “Of what portion of England was he a native?” “I do not know, Rupert,” Virgie said, looking troubled. “I imagine there is something about my father that mamma has never been willing to tell me. She always grows so sad and pale whenever I speak of him that I have not the heart to question her, although, as I have grown older, I have been very desirous of knowing more concerning him.” “Do you remember him?” “Oh, no; I never saw him. He was called home to England a few weeks before my birth, and was lost.” “Lost at sea! How sad! Mrs. Alexander must have been very young.” “Yes, she was only a little over twenty.” “You will probably visit your father’s home now that you are here,” Rupert remarked. “I asked mamma that one day, and she grew so white that I was frightened. She remarked that that was one object she had in coming abroad, but it was chiefly for my sake; and then she shivered as if there was something about it that she regarded with great dread. But hush! she is coming back to us.” Mrs. Alexander entered at that moment, and smiled as she saw the happy faces of the two young lovers, although Virgie was sure that there was a suspicious redness about her eyes, as if she had been weeping. “I have won her, Mrs. Alexander,” Rupert said, taking Virgie by the hand and leading her to her mother. “This dear girl has promised to be my wife, and I am sure you will give us your blessing and congratulations.”