well."

"Then there's no reason why we shouldn't get married. Don't we
belong to each other now? Why should we refuse to stand up and
say so?"

That seemed unanswerable--a perfect excuse for doing what she
wished to do. For the little white cottage fascinated her--how
she did long to be sure of him! And she felt so free, so
absolutely her own mistress in these new surroundings, where no
one attempted to exercise authority over another.

"I must feel sure of you, Pauline. Sometimes everything seems
to be against me, and I even doubt you. And--that's when the
temptations pull hardest. If we were married it'd all be
different."

Yes, it would be different. And he would be securely hers, with
her mind at rest instead of harassed as it would be if she let
him go so far away, free. And where was the harm in merely
repeating before a preacher the promise that now bound them both?
She looked at him and he at her.

"You don't put any others before me, do you, dear?" he asked.

"No, Jack--no one. I belong to you."

"Come!" he pleaded, and they went down to the boat. She seemed
to herself to be in a dream--in a trance.