than life. I said that our home had been a happy one, but to me it can
be so no longer if you refuse to share it with me!"

She turned her blushing face towards him for a single instant, and
timidly placed her hand in his. The touch sent a thrill through her
whole frame.

"And you will dare trust me?" he said in a low tone of intense joy.
"Oh, Rose! I have not deserved such happiness as this! I am not worthy
of one so pure and good. But I will do all that man can do to make
your life bright and happy."

"Ah, Mr. Dinsmore! I am very unfit for the place you have asked me
to fill," she murmured. "I am not old enough, or wise enough to be a
mother to your little girl."

"I know you are young, dear Rose, but you are far from foolish," he
said tenderly, "and my little girl is quite prepared to yield you a
daughter's love and obedience; but I do not think she will be a care
or trouble to you; I do not intend that she shall, but expect to take
all that upon myself. Indeed, Rose, dearest, you shall never know any
care or trouble that I can save you from. No words can tell how dear
you are to me, and were it in my power I would shield you from every
annoyance, and give you every joy that the human heart can know. I
have loved you from the first day we met!--ah, I loved you even before
that, for all your love and kindness to my darling child; but I
scarcely dared hope that you could return my affection, or feel
willing to trust your happiness to the keeping of one who had shown
himself such a monster of cruelty in his treatment of his little
gentle daughter. Are you not afraid of me, Rose?"