This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
14
THE YOUNG GIRL ON THE BENCH.

"Penelope, don't," he pleaded. "You know I love you. Why, Penel', love, if I thought that your foolish whim would separate us forever I'd——— Oh, darling, you don't doubt my love, do you?"

"Hush!" she whispered, warningly, pointing to the girl on the other bench.

"Oh, she is asleep," Dick replied carelessly.

"Don't he too sure," Penelope urged, gazing abstractedly towards the girl, her eyes soft with the feeling that was thrilling her heart.

Like all girls Penelope never tired of hearing the man who had won her love swearing his devotion, but like all girls she preferred to be the sole and only listener to those vows, to that tone.

"If she is awake she is the first young woman I ever saw who would let her new La Tosca sunshade lie on the ground," he said laughingly.