such things at all. It was only afterwards, when somehow the danger
and the anxiety seemed to make a man of me, when I saw how brave
and thoughtful and unselfish you were, that I knew I loved you, and
felt that if you could some day love me, I should be the happiest
fellow alive. Before that I thought of you as a dear little girl
who inclined to make rather too much of me because of that dog
business. And did you really care for me then?"

"I never thought of it in that way, Harry, any more than you did,
but I know now that my mother was right, and that I loved you all
along without knowing it. My dear father and mother told Marie
that they thought I was fond of you, and that, if at any time you
should get fond of me too and ask for my hand, they gave their
approval beforehand, for they were sure that you would make me
happy.

"So they told Marie and Ernest, who, if ill came to them, would be
the heads of the family, that I had their consent to marry you. It
makes me happy to know this, Harry."

"I am very glad, too, dear," Harry said earnestly.

"It is very satisfactory for you, and it is very pleasant to me to
know that they were ready to trust you to me. Ah!" he said suddenly,
"that was what was in the letter. I wondered a little at the time,
for somehow after that, Jeanne, you were a little different with
me. I thought at first I might somehow have offended you. But I did
not think that long," he went on, as Jeanne uttered an indignant
exclamation, "because if anything offended you, you always spoke
out frankly. Still I wondered over it for some time, and certainly