His
delight at Dick's return was extreme.
"I never thought you would do it, Master Dick, never for a moment, and
when on coming home I got your letter, and found that the Captain and
your mother were in England, it just knocked me foolish for a bit."
Three weeks later, Dick told Annie that he loved her. He spoke without
any circumlocution, merely taking her hand one evening, when they
happened to be alone together, and telling her so in plain words.
"I know nothing of women, Annie," he said, "or their ways. I have been
bothering myself how to set about it, but though I don't know how to
put it, I do know that I love you dearly. All these years I have been
thinking about you--not like this, you know, but as the dear, plucky
little girl of the old days."
"The little girl of old days, Dick," she said quietly, "is in no way
changed. I think you know what I thought of you, then. I have never
for a moment wavered. I gave you all the love of my heart, and you
have had it ever since.
"Why, you silly boy," she said, with a laugh, a few minutes later, "I
had begun to think that, just as I had to ask you for a kiss in the
old times, and again when you met me, I should have to take this
matter in hand.
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