“No, I was not intending to go so far as that, Dexie.”

“Well, I hope when I get married that I shall care enough for my husband to feel like exerting myself a little towards making the house comfortable.  I want a happier married life than I see at home.  I suppose we all have our ideals, but I would sooner take your mother for an example of what a wife should be, rather than mine.”

“I believe you and I would live very happily together, Dexie; if you cared for me as much as I care for you, there would be no trouble,” and he pressed the hand he held in his.

“Oh!  I daresay we might get along quite passably, Lancy; but that doesn’t seem to me enough, and I do not want to be bound by a promise which, in the future, we might both wish was never made.”

“Dexie, I never thought you would put me off like this,” said Lancy, in a wounded tone “You have known all this time how much I care for you, and how it was to end, and yet you think I may fall in love with someone else when you have gone away.  How can you think such a thing?”

“I have no cause to think so, Lancy, for indeed you have been most kind to me all along; but I cannot help thinking that you may meet someone else who would suit you better, and yet you would feel bound to me if a promise was made between us.  Let me go away free, Lancy, and if by the time you are ready to take a wife you find your feelings the same as they are now, ask me your question again; perhaps I will know my own mind by that time, for I must confess I hardly do at present.”

“I will never change; but you—­you want to leave the way open for yourself, and I thought you cared for me, Dexie.”

Dexie felt hurt at his reproachful tone, but she put her hand across his, saying:  “Lancy, don’t be silly, for I do care for you.  I do not know any other person, outside my own family, that I like so well as I do you.  Now, will that admission satisfy you?  But do not ask a promise from me for a year; give me even six months; by that time we will know whether we are necessary to each other’s happiness or not.”

“Very well, Dexie, but I shall feel that you are mine, even though you have not given me your promise; so do not let any romantic notions run away with you when I am not near to watch you.”

“But, Lancy,” said she, laughing, “supposing I should happen to meet some person who inspired me with love such as one reads of in story books, would you care to have me for a wife if my heart were not in the bargain?”

“No, Dexie, I hope you are supposing impossible things.  Would you break my heart?”

“Hearts don’t break, Lancy,” she said, smiling; “they may ache, but I doubt if they ever break.”

“Dexie, you make my heart ache already.  I have planned and hoped so much, and you give me so little to build on, after all.  Is it fair to trifle with me like this?”

There was a few minutes’ silence, then Dexie said: