"Oh! if Mrs. Brownlow is so good as to let me come again in the
holidays!" and she was all one flush of joy, looking round, and up in
his face, to see whether it could be true.

"Not only for holidays-—for work days," he said, and his voice shook.

"But Mrs. Brownlow can't want a companion?"

"But I do. Caroline, will you come back to us to make home doubly
sweet to a busy man, who will do his best to make you happy?"

The little creature looked up in his face bewildered, and then said
shyly, the colour surging into her face—-

"Please, what did you say?"

"I asked if you would stay with us, and make this place bright for
us, as my wife," he said, taking both the little brown hands into his
own, and looking into the widely-opened wondering eyes; while she
answered, "if I may,"-—the very words, almost the very tone, in which
she had replied to his invitation to come to recover at his house.

"Ah, my poor child, you have no one's leave to ask!" he said; "you
belong to us, only to us,"—-and he drew her into his arms, and kissed
her.

Then he felt and heard a great sob, and there were two tears on her
cheek when he could see her face, but she smiled with happy,
quivering lip, and said—-