"
"Yes. But I mean one that should devote himself to you alone. Philip
has Margaret; and besides, he is gone now, and so is Mr. Cornelius.
And Tom will be finding a wife some day, and your parents cannot live
for ever, and your friends will be married one after another."
"Poor me!" says she, with a sigh of comic wofulness. "How helpless and
alone you make me feel!"
"Not so entirely alone, neither! There's one I didn't mention."
"And that one, too, I suppose, will be running off some day."
"No. He, like Tom, will be seeking a wife some day; perhaps sooner
than Tom; perhaps very soon indeed; perhaps this very minute."
"Oh, Bert!--What nonsense! Don't look at me so, here in the
street--people will take notice."
"What do I care for people? Let the fellows all see, and envy me, if
you'll give me what I ask. What say you, dearest? Speak; tell me! Nay,
if you won't, I'll make you blush all the more--I love you, I love
you, I love you! Now will you speak?"
"Oh, Bert, dear, at least wait till we are home!"
"If you'll promise to say yes then."
"Very well--if 'twill please you."
"Nay, it must be to please yourself too. You do love me a little,
don't you?"
"Why, of course I do; and you must have known it all the time!"
But, alas, her father's "yes" was not so easily to be won. I broached
the matter to him that very evening (Fanny and I meanwhile having come
to a fuller understanding in the seclusion of the garden); but he
shook his head, and regarded me coldly.
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