"He needn't be so sure about it," she said, with indignant spirit. "I'll
never marry _any_ stranger, unless he's awful rich--oh, as rich as
anything!"

"Oh, Miss POTTS!" roared MONTGOMERY, suddenly, folding-down upon one
knee before her, and scratching his nose with a ring upon the hand he
sought to kiss, "why will you not bestow upon me the heart so generously
disdainful of everything except the most extreme wealth? Why waste your
best years in waiting for proposals from a class of Northern men who
occasionally expect that their brides, also, shall have property, when
here I offer you the name and hand of a loving Southern gentleman, who
only needs the paying off of a few mortgages on his estate in the South
to be beyond all immediate danger of starvation?"

Turning her pretty head aside, but unconsciously allowing him to retain
her hand, she faintly asked how they were to live?

"Live!" repeated the impetuous lover. "On love, hash, mutual trust,
bread pudding: anything that's cheap. I'll do the washing and ironing
myself."

"How perfectly ridiculous!" said the orphan, bashfully turning her head
still further aside, and bringing one ear-ring to bear strongly upon
him. "You'd never be able to do fluting and pinking in the world."

"I could do anything, with you by my side!" he retorted, eagerly. Oh,
Miss POTTS!--FLORA!--think how lonely I am. My sister, as on may have
heard, has accepted Gospeler SIMPSON'S proposal, by mail, for her hand,
and is already so busy quarrelling with his mother that she is no longer