"you deserve a reward:" and she held up her face for a kiss.

"I am overpaid," he said, when he had bestowed it.

"In spite of the coin being such as you have a right to help yourself
to whenever you will?" she returned with a merry laugh. "O Ned, my
lover-husband!" she added, laying her head on his breast, "I am so happy
in belonging to you, and I can never love you enough for all your
goodness to me!"

"Darling, are you not equally good and loving to me?" he asked in tender
tones, and holding her close.

"But I owe every thing to you," she responded with emotion. "If you had
not come to my aid when my dear father was taken from me, what would
have become of me, a mere child, without a near relative in the world,
alone and destitute in a foreign land?"

"But I loved you, dearest. I sought my own happiness, as well as yours,
in asking you to be my wife. So you need never feel burdened by the idea
that you are under any special obligation to me, to whom you are the
very sunshine of life."

"Dear Ned, how very kind in you to say so," she responded, gazing with
ardent affection into his eyes; "but it isn't burdensome to be under
obligation to you, any more than it is a trial to be ruled by you," she
added, with playful tenderness; "and I love to think of all your
goodness to me."

It was five minutes past four by Zoe's watch, and she just about to go