“Oh!” he echoed, smiling, and, stooping, recovered his hat. “If you are out for a walk, may I join you?” he asked. She nodded assent, and he walked on by her side out of the shadow of the cypresses into the sunlight of the narrow by-path. “Mrs. de Vere sent me out into the air to get up a fine complexion for the ball,” she said, smiling up into his grave, dark face, with a secret wonder over the shadow that lay in his eyes. But he smiled back at her even though it cost him an effort, and replied: “My mother was cruel to the young men who will be at the ball to try to add another charm to your perfection. Does she think “‘To gild refined gold? To paint the lily?’” There came to her again the suggestive lines: “Too warm for a friend and too cold for a lover;” and she sighed even while she said, demurely: “Thank you.” “You were talking to yourself as you came up to me,” he said. “Is that a habit of yours?” “Yes, but I am heartily ashamed of it,” blushing. “I wish I could hear you sometimes when alone. I should like to know some of your secret thoughts, Little Sweetheart.” “For instance?” she asked, encouragingly. “How do you like Verelands?” “It is the most charming home in the world.” “And its master?” The swift color rushed to her cheek, but she answered, simply and gravely: “My best friend!” “And something else that perhaps you have never guessed, Sweetheart.” She started and looked up at him, wondering at the strong emotion in his voice. Their eyes met, and he said, huskily: “Your lover.” He stopped then, carried away by a swift rush of emotion. Catching her hands in his, as he had done several times before under the stress of strong feeling, he asked: “Do you comprehend me, Sweetheart? I love you, not as _I_ pretended--with a brother’s love--but with the truest and deepest passion my heart has ever known. Can you love me in return? Will you be my wife?” He felt the trembling of the graceful form as he held tight to the little hands. Her face drooped, and a wave of roseate color swept from chin to brow. Thea could scarcely look at him, but it was impossible for her to speak, so she lifted her downcast lids, and gave him a swift, quickly withdrawn glance so full of exquisite joy and love that he could not doubt the story told him by those deep violet eyes. With a thrill of rapture he drew his little love close to his breast, and pressed a lover’s passionate kiss on her yielding and responsive lips.