en round to your door as soon as the paint is dry, to show 'ee how it
looks?'

'Oh, I am sure you needn't take that trouble, Jim; I can see it quite
well enough in my mind,' replied the young girl--not without a
flitting accent of superiority.

'Hullo,' said Jim, taking her by the shoulders, and looking at her
hard. 'What dew that bit of incivility mean? Now, Margery, let's
sit down here, and have this cleared.' He rapped with his stick upon
the rail of a little bridge they were crossing, and seated himself
firmly, leaving a place for her.

'But I want to get home-along,' dear Jim, she coaxed.

'Fidgets. Sit down, there's a dear. I want a straightforward
answer, if you please. In what month, and on what day of the month,
will you marry me?'

'O, Jim,' she said, sitting gingerly on the edge, 'that's too plain-
spoken for you yet. Before I look at it in that business light I
should have to--to--'

'But your father has settled it long ago, and you said it should be
as soon as I became a partner. So, dear, you must not mind a plain
man wanting a plain answer. Come, name your time.'

She did not reply at once. What thoughts were passing through her
brain during the interval? Not images raised by his words, but
whirling figures of men and women in red and white and blue,