But these feelings received a sudden shock, when, after breakfast, her lover drew her into the little parlor, his face very grave, yet full of tenderness for her.

“I have something that I wish to say to you, Virgie—­something to ask you,” he said; “but, remember, that you are to answer me frankly and truly.  You are not to be unduly influenced by my—­by any one’s wishes—­to consent to what might seem premature, and thus repugnant to you.”

Virgie looked up at him questioningly, growing pale, and a thrill of fear shooting through her heart.

“Your father feels,” Sir William went on, answering her look, “as if he would like to—­to have your future settled before—­his strength fails him any further.”

“Oh!” cried the young girl, clinging to her lover, a wild look in her eyes, “papa is not going to—­die!  Do not tell me that.  He is better to-day, and he will—­he must grow yet stronger.”

“My darling,” said Sir William, holding her close to him, and speaking with sorrowful tenderness, “I am not going to deceive you.  It would not be right for me to do so.  But Dr. Waters thinks that he cannot stay with us much longer.  He believes that he will rally for a while, but the state of his system warns him that it will be but a very little while.  And, Virgie, your father wants us to be married at once.  Darling, shall it be as he wishes?”

But Virgie hardly heard these latter sentences.

She threw herself upon that manly breast in a wild burst of grief.

It was a dreadful blow to be told that the die was cast, that her father’s doom was very near.

In an indefinite way she had been dreading it ever since he himself had talked so plainly about it to her, but with the buoyancy of youth she had kept hoping against hope, and refusing to believe the fearful truth.

Sir William held her in her fond embrace, and allowed her to weep until her tears were spent.

He knew that it was better to let her grief have its way.  She would be calmer and stronger afterward, though every sob and tear was bitter pain to his loving heart.

She grew more quiet after a time, and at length he felt that he might again speak of the subject so near his heart.

“Will you be my wife, Virgie?  I would not have forced this upon you just now but for your father’s desire, and because Dr. Waters, who must return to-day to his own duties, can make all necessary arrangements for us upon his arrival in Virginia City.

“A clergyman must be sent to us, and there are some other matters which I wish attended to, so we must decide now.  Still, my darling, if you shrink from this step, if the thought of it shocks you, I will not urge it, I will wait until you are quite ready for it.”

“Did papa propose it?” Virgie asked, hiding her flushed face from those eager, loving eyes looking down upon her.