have told you so before. If you were to sail away, I care not to what
port, this world would be a black place for me."

"That is like a lover," she exclaimed a little pertly; "it is like them
all, every man of them. They must have what they want, and they must
have it, no matter who else may suffer."

He rose and stood by her.

"But I don't want you to suffer," he said. "Do you think it would be
suffering to live with one who loved you, who would spend his whole life
in making you happy, who would look upon you as the chief thing in the
world, and have no other ambition than to make himself worthy of you?"

She looked up at him with a little smile.

"That would, doubtless, be all very pleasant for you," she said, "and in
order that you might be pleased, you would have her give up so much.
That is the way with men! Now, here am I, born in the very end of the
last century, and having had, consequently, no good out of that, and
with but seventeen years in this century, and most of it passed in
girlhood and in school; and now, when the world might open before me for
a little, here you come along and tell me all that you would like to
have, and that you would like me to give up."

"But you should not think," said he, and that was all he said, for at
that moment Kate Bonnet felt a little jerk at the end of her line, and
then a good strong pull.

"I have a fish!" she cried, and sprang to her feet. Then, with a swoop,