"Oh, Nelly," she cried, throwing herself into an easy chair, and
covering her face with her hands. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!" She opened her
fingers and looked whimsically at her cousin, who, despising this stage
business, said, impatiently:

"Well?"

"Do you know what Sholto came for?"

"To propose to you."

"Stop, Nelly. You do not know what horrible things one may say in jest.
He _has_ proposed."

"When will the wedding be?"

"Dont joke about it, please. I scarcely know how I have behaved, or what
the meaning of the whole scene is, yet. Listen. Did you ever suspect
that he was--what shall I say?--_courting_ me?"

"I saw that he was trying to be tender in his own conceited way. I fully
expected he would propose some day, if he could once reconcile himself
to a wife who was not afraid of him."

"And you never told me."

"I thought you saw it for yourself; particularly as you encouraged him."

"There! The very thing he has been accusing me of! He said I had given
him unequivocal tokens--yes, unequivocal tokens--that I was madly in