“Almost,” she answered, looking at him with clear truthful eyes.

“That is rather hard upon me, my dear.  But I can wait.  You do not know how patient I can be.”

He began to talk of indifferent subjects after this, a little depressed and disheartened by the course the interview had taken.  He felt that he had been too precipitate.  What was there in a fortnight’s intimacy to justify such a step, except to himself, with whom time had been measured by a different standard since he had known Marian Nowell?  He was angry with his own eagerness, which had brought upon him this semi-defeat.

Happily Miss Nowell had not told him that his case was hopeless, had not forbidden him to approach the subject again; nor had she exhibited any involuntary sign of aversion to him.  Surprise had appeared the chief sentiment caused by his revelation.  Surprise was natural to such girlish inexperience; and after surprise had passed away, more tender feelings might arise, a latent tenderness unsuspected hitherto.

“I think a woman can scarcely help returning a man’s love, if he is only as thoroughly in earnest as I am,” Gilbert Fenton said to himself, as he sat under the walnut-trees trying to talk pleasantly, and to ignore the serious conversation which had preceded that careless talk.

He saw the Captain alone next day, and told him what had happened.  George Sedgewick listened to him with profound attention and a grave anxious face.

“She didn’t reject you?” he said, when Gilbert had finished his story.

“Not in plain words.  But there was not much to indicate hope.  And yet I cling to the fancy that she will come to love me in the end.  To think otherwise would be utter misery to me.  I cannot tell you how dearly I love her, and how weak I am about this business.  It seems contemptible for a man to talk about a broken heart; but I shall carry an empty one to my grave unless I win Marian Nowell for my wife.”

“You shall win her!” cried the Captain energetically.  “You are a noble fellow, sir, and will make her an excellent husband.  She will not be so foolish as to reject such a disinterested affection.  Besides,” he added, hesitating a little, “I have a very shrewd notion that all this apparent indifference is only shyness on my little girl’s part, and that she loves you.”

“You believe that!” cried Gilbert eagerly.

“It is only guesswork on my part, of course.  I am an old bachelor, you see, and have had very little experience as to the signs and tokens of the tender passion.  But I will sound my little girl by and by.  She will be more ready to confess the truth to her old uncle than she would to you, perhaps.  I think you have been a trifle hasty about this affair.  There is so much in time and custom.”

“It is only a cold kind of love that grows out of custom,” Gilbert answered gloomily.  “But I daresay you are right, and that it would have been better for me to have waited.”