"Excuse his eccentricity, Pa!" Celeste said. "He loves me _so_ much, poor fellow!" "Humph! Get enough of _that!_" he growled, with contempt. "And he has a nice little property!" added Celeste, as they went up stairs. "Property is the thing!" Fishblate _pere_ said, with undisguised plainness. Nattie emerged from her retreat on the hasty exit of Quimby and Celeste, so full of regret for the flight that had proved so disastrous to him, that the ludicrous part of the scene just enacted was forgotten. "Poor Quimby!" she thought, remorsefully. "What a dreadful fix he is in! I hope he will get out of it; and I am so sorry for my share in it! How strange it would be if he should, as he once said, marry the wrong woman, after all!" CHAPTER XIV. QUIMBY ACCEPTS THE SITUATION. When Quimby rushed out into the street, it was with some wild and indefinite intention of flying to the ends of the earth, but recalled to his senses by the stares of the passers-by, he concluded he had better first return and get his hat. When he reached his own room, where Clem was thoughtfully pacing the floor, he flung himself face downwards upon the bed, groaning and kicking his feet spasmodically. "What is the matter?" Clem inquired. "I've done it now! I've done it now!" was all the answer Quimby gave him. "Has she rejected you?" asked Clem, his mind going back to their morning's conversation. "No! no! she has accepted me!" wailed Quimby, with a prodigious kick. "_What!_" shouted Clem, stopping short in his promenade. "She has! Oh, she has!" moaned the wretched victim of mistakes. "I am engaged! Oh, heavens! engaged!" "Do you mean to tell me that Miss Rogers has accepted you?" inquired Clem harshly. This name completely unmanned poor Quimby, and he began to cry like a school-boy. "Miss Rogers!--No! never--never! but _she_--Celeste!" "Celeste!" echoed Clem; "Celeste!" "Yes! I--oh!--I made a mistake, you know!" explained Quimby, wiping his eyes on the bedspread. An irresistible smile, but quickly suppressed, curved Clem's lips as he asked, "But how could you possibly make such a mistake as that? Come, cheer up, my boy, tell me, and let me help you out!" Quimby looked at him mournfully. "It--it was dark," he answered dejectedly, "she sat in the chair--the lost Nattie I mean, it was she, for she spoke to me! Why did I not seize the chance then? But no! I left her to--to rehearse a little first, and when I returned--Oh!--it was still dark, and I did not know a transformation had been effected--I burst forth in eloquence, and--oh!--it was Celeste, you know! I fled--she followed,--caught and hugged me in the hall! Her father saw--roared 'Marry her' and I--there was no escape, you know!" "But, my dear fellow," remonstrated Clem, "you can explain the mistake! you are not obliged to marry Celeste because you accidentally proposed to her!" Quimby shook his head hopelessly.