"Oh, Tom! how good you are! It is n't fair for you to be with me all the time, so"
"Is n't fair!" exclaimed Tom. "What do you mean?"
Susan colored, but did not speak. He understood.
"Do you dislike to have me with you all the time?" he asked, emphatically.
"Oh, no!" cried Susan; "no. You know it is n't that"
"Then I am content," replied he. "It is all right."
Susan made no reply. Her eyes were fixed on the ground. Something he saw in her face made Tom bolder than one moment before he would have dared to be.
"One of these years, Sue, you and I will be married," he said, quietly.
She started, turned red, then pale, and stammered:—
"Why, Tom, I told you long ago"
"Oh, yes,"—he interrupted her in a placid tone, "that 's all right. I understand it. It will be just as you say; but one of these years you 'll think it right," and Tom began to talk about something else as naturally and calmly as if no exciting topic had been broached.
When Susan thought over this extraordinary conversation she laughed and she cried. At one moment she thought it the most audacious imperti-
