She protested that he was awfully extravagant; but she cheered up. After
all, what difference did it make what a person like Auntie thought! "But
who will you ask?" she said. "I suppose you don't know any men here? And
I don't, either."

He admitted that he had only two or three acquaintances in Mercer--"but
I have a lot in Philadelphia. You shan't live on a desert island,
Nelly!"

"Ah, but I'd like to--_with you_! I don't want anyone but you, in the
world," she said, softly.

He thrilled at the wonder of that: she would be contented, _with
him_,--on a desert island! Oh, if he could only always be enough for
her! He vowed to himself, in sudden boyish solemnity, that he _would_
always be enough for her. Aloud, he said he thought he could scratch up
two or three fellows.

Then Eleanor's apprehension spoke: "What _will_ Mr. Houghton say?"

"Oh, he's all right," Maurice said, resolutely hiding his own
apprehension. He could hide it, but he could not forget it. Even while
arranging for his dinner party, and plunging into the expense of a
private dining room, he was thinking, of his guardian; "Will he kick?"
Aloud he said, "I've asked three fellows, and you ask three girls."

"I don't know many girls," she said, anxiously.

"How about that girl you spoke to on the street yesterday? (If Uncle
Henry could only see her, he'd be crazy about her!)"