“I don’t want you to, Harry.  Only your mother is so delicate and getting old, and she loves you beyond all the rest of the world, though you think she don’t because she has been cruel to me.  It will break her heart if you join this dangerous enterprise.  Stay in Europe, go to Heidelberg and finish the course you so foolishly broke up.  They’ll blame me, Harry, for all the evil that comes to you.”

“Well, I’ll think about it, dear.”  Then to Ross; “Does she kiss you, Norval?”

“Well, I can’t say she does,” said that gentleman, who had been a surprised listener to their talk, and it annoyed him to have to confess she did not.

“Nor let you kiss her, either?”

“Well, yes,” with a laugh.  “She can’t very well help that, you know.”

“Don’t you believe it:  if she didn’t want you to, you’d never kiss her, I know.  Why, we three cousins, Sheldon, Mac and I, have tried every way to get her to kiss us for years, and never succeeded.  You’re a lucky dog!”

“He’s my husband, Harry;” and she laid her head down on Ross’s arm.

“Don’t, Percy!” said her cousin with a quick motion of his hand:  “I’ll be gone soon;” then hurriedly and gayly:  “Let me do the honors of your new domains.  And, Norval, I have a great favor to ask of you.  My little cousin’s amour propre won’t be touched, or herself involved now she’s a married woman, by taking an honest gift from me, and all brides take bridal gifts, you know.  I want you to let me give her all the traps I’ve left in the rooms.  It isn’t much grace to ask, old fellow, seeing you’re to have her always and I not at all.”

“Why, certainly, Barton, I have no objections if she has none.”

“Percy, you’ve never let me give you anything all these years, you proud little soul, nor any of the rest of us:  you’ve come scot-free from all our endeavors to snare you through all your hard-working life.  You won’t go quite empty-handed to your husband’s arms, just to plague me, will you?”

“No, indeed!  I’m delighted to have all your pretty things.  I saw them once, you know, when you gave your mother her birth-night party;” and they began their round of inspection.  “But, Harry, you’ve refurnished the whole suite!”

“You didn’t think I was going to make you and Norval (I can’t call you Cousin Ross yet, old fellow—­I hate you too bad, you know) cast your lines among my smoke-and-wine-scented traps, did you?”

As she saw how exquisitely he had chosen everything, how delicately he had regarded every one of her tastes in his selection, and thought how little reason he had to be good to her, she turned quickly and put her arms about him.  With a shuddering sob he held his own out as if to clasp her, saying, “May I, Ross?” The answering nod was scarcely given ere he had gathered her to his breast, murmuring, “Percy!  Percy! my lost darling!”

As he held her thus, she said softly, “Promise me, Harry—­dear old Hal—­promise me this!”