he put this question, bend in his eagerness towards her until
her brown tresses touched his swart cheek. Was it then strange
that the eagerness wherewith he urged another's suit should
have been by her interpreted as her heart would have had it?

She set her hands upon his shoulders, and meeting his eager
gaze with the frank glance of the maid who, out of trust, is
fearless in her surrender:

"Throughout my life I shall thank God that you have dared it,"
she made answer softly.

A strange reply he deemed it, yet, pondering, he took her
meaning to be that since Jocelyn had lacked the courage to woo
boldly, she was glad that he had sent an ambassador less timid.

A pause followed, and for a spell they sat silent, he thinking
of how to frame his next words; she happy and content to sit
beside him without speech.

She marvelled somewhat at the strangeness of his wooing, which
was like unto no wooing her romancer's tales had told her of,
but then she reflected how unlike he was to other men, and
therein she saw the explanation.

"I wish," he mused, "that matters were easier; that it might be
mine to boldly sue your hand from your father, but it may not
be. Even had events not fallen out as they have done, it had
been difficult; as it is, it is impossible."