Eloise was too happy to care for Mrs. Grundy, and her happiness increased with every hour which brought her nearer to Florida, and she saw more and more how thoroughly kind and thoughtful Jack was.  Sometimes he sat with her and her mother in the compartment he had engaged for them, but oftener when Amy was resting she sat with him in his section, planning what she was to do first when Florida was reached, and how she was to find Jakey.  Jack knew exactly what to do, but he liked to listen to her and watch the expression of her face, which seemed to him to grow more beautiful every hour.  On the last evening they were to be upon the road, she was sitting with him just before the car lamps were lighted, and he said to her, “Suppose you don’t succeed?  What will you do?”

For a moment Eloise was silent; then she replied, “I shall take mother home to my grandmother’s.  I call her that still, although you know she is not really mine, but I love her just the same, and shall take care of her and mother.  I can do it.  Ruby will let me have the school, I am sure, if I ask her, but I couldn’t take it from her now.  I can get another somewhere, or if not a school, I can find something to do.  I am not afraid of work.”

She was trying to be very brave, but there was a pathetic look in her face which moved Jack strangely.  Her hands were lying in her lap, and taking the one nearest to him, he said, “Eloise, I’ll tell you what you are going to do, whether you succeed or not.  You are going to be my wife!  Yes, my wife!”

“Mr. Harcourt!” Eloise exclaimed, trying to withdraw her hand from him.

But he only held it closer, while he said, “Don’t Mr. Harcourt me!  Call me Jack, and I shall know you assent.  I think I have loved you ever since I saw you on the rostrum in Mayville,—­at any rate, ever since that stormy night when you came near being killed.  I did not mean to speak here in the car, but I am glad I have settled it.”

He was taking her consent for granted, and was squeezing her hand until she said involuntarily, “Oh, Jack, you hurt me!”

Then he dropped it and, stooping, kissed her, saying, “I am answered.  You have called me Jack.  You are mine,—­my little wife,—­the dearest a man ever had.”

He kissed her again, while she whispered, “Oh, Jack, how can you, with all the people looking on? and it isn’t very dark yet.”

“There are not many to look on, and they are in front of us, and I don’t care if the whole world sees me,” Jack replied, passing his arm around her and drawing her close to him.

“You must not, right here in the car; besides that, I haven’t told you I would,” she said, making an effort to free herself from him, as the porter began to light the lamps.

He was satisfied with her answer, and kept his arm around her in the face of the porter, who was too much accustomed to such scenes to pay any attention to this particular one.  He had spotted them as lovers from the first and was not surprised, but when eleven o’clock came and every berth was made up except that of Jack, who still sat with Eloise beside him, loath to let her go, the negro grew uneasy and anxious to finish his night’s work.