"Maria," he said, "you should not get such ideas into your head. I
admire Hilda very much, and that is all. Why, dear, I have always
looked upon myself as half engaged to you--that is, so far as I am
concerned; and I have only been waiting till circumstances would allow
me to do so, to ask you if you think me worth marrying."

For a while she made no reply, but only blushed the more; at last she
looked up a little.

"You have made me very happy, Philip." That was all she said.

"I am very glad, dear, that you can find anything in me to like; but
if you do care for me, and think me worth waiting for, I am going to
ask something of your affection: I am going to ask you to trust me as
well as to love me. I do not, for reasons that I will not enter into,
but which I beg you to believe are perfectly straightforward, wish
anything to be said of our engagement at present, not even to your
friend Hilda. Do you trust me sufficiently to agree to that?"

"Philip, I trust you as much as I love you, and for years I have loved
you with all my heart. And now, dear, please go; I want to think."

In the hall a servant gave him a note; it was from Hilda, and ran
thus--

"I have changed my mind. I will meet you in the summer-house this
evening. I have something to say to you."

Philip whistled as he read it.