"But--good heavens!... Besides, there's this aunt they've gone to--they could live with her. You aren't telling me--you can't mean you won't marry me because you imagine it's your duty to sacrifice our happiness for the sake of two young women you don't care about? You know you don't care about them! It's mad! I need you more than they do; I can make you happier than they do. I shall never be a millionaire, but I shall come into a bit by and by, and I can make things bright for you at home, one day. You'd have rather a good time out there, for that matter. I _want_ to make things bright for you--I want to see you what you were meant to be. You've never had your youth yet, you've been done out of it; I want to give it to you, I want you to forget what it means to feel depressed. That'd be just my loveliest joy, to see you in high spirits, laughing, waking up younger instead of older, growing more like a girl every day.... People'd begin to take me for your father! That'd be rough on me, wouldn't it?" She looked, misty-eyed and smiling, at this man who had transfigured life for her. "I know it sounds silly of me." "That's meek," he laughed. "Very well, then. As soon as they come back we'll tell them. Perhaps they won't mind as much as you think--they aren't so devoted to you, are they?" "It isn't that. Their father's memory means so much to them--they'll think it so awful of me. And----" "And what?" "You don't know everything--I haven't told you all about it. It sounds hideous, I know, but I couldn't help it--I drifted into it. I--I've had to pretend so much. Pretend to miss him, I mean. All the time. Every day. I----To tell them that it wasn't true----How can I?" "You wouldn't be the only woman who had loved twice; other women have cared for their husbands, and married again." "It has been all the time," she muttered, shame-faced. "Even since we have been here I've had to----Just before they went, we sent flowers to the cemetery and I was supposed to--I mean, I had to pretend to be sorry we couldn't take them ourselves. What a hypocrite I shall seem! What'll they say?" He grasped her hands, and held her tight, and told her what _he_ would be willing to do for _her_--and though he was older than she, and looked it, he talked like a boy. "Do you disbelieve me?" he asked. "And if you don't disbelieve me, won't _you_ face a little awkwardness for _me_? If it comes to that, _I_ can speak to them first. Once the news is broken, the worst'll be over for you. What a baby you are, darling! May I call you a baby the moment I'm engaged to you, Mrs. Findon, madam? Oh, you little timid, foolish, sweetest soul, fancy talking about missing all our happiness for life, to avoid a bad half-hour! It'd be a funny choice, wouldn't it, Belle my Belle?" She nodded, radiant; and aglow with the courage he had communicated, she thought she could have proclaimed her intention straightway, if the young women had returned then.