Next day, while Mrs. Yorke was still considering what to do, a card was handed her.  It was a name written simply on one of the slips of paper that were kept on the hotel counter below.  Keith of late had not been sending up his card; a servant simply announced his name.  This, then, decided her.  It was the most fortunate thing in the world that Alice had gone off and was out of the way.  It gave Mrs. Yorke the very opportunity she desired.  If, as she divined, the young man wished to talk to her about anything personal, she would speak kindly to him, but so plainly that he could never forget it.  After all, it would be true kindness to him to do so.  She had a virtuous feeling as she smoothed her hair before a mirror.

He was not in the sitting-room when she came down; so she sought for him on one of the long verandahs where they usually sat.  He was seated at the far end, where he would be more or less secluded, and she marched down on him.  He was evidently on the watch for her, and as soon as she appeared he rose from his seat.  She had made up her mind very clearly what she would say to him; but as she approached him it was not so easy to say as she had fancied it.  There was something in his bearing and expression that deterred her from using the rather condescending words she had formulated.  His face was somewhat pale; his mouth was firmly set, throwing out the chin in a way to make it quite strong; his eyes were anxious, but steady; his form was very erect, and his shoulders were very square and straight.  He appeared to her older than she had considered him.  It would not do to patronize this man.  After greeting her, he handed her a chair solemnly, and the next moment plunged straight into his subject.  It was so sudden that it almost took her breath away; and before she knew it he had, with the blood coming and going in his cheeks, declared his love for her daughter, and asked her permission to pay her his addresses.  After the first gulp or two he had lost his embarrassment, and was speaking in a straightforward, manly way.  The color had come rushing back into his face, and his eyes were filled with light.  Mrs. Yorke felt that it was necessary to do something.  So, though she felt some trepidation, she took heart and began to answer him.  As she proceeded, her courage returned to her, and seeing that he was much disturbed, she became quite composed.

She regretted extremely, she said, that she had not foreseen this.  It was all so unexpected to her that she was quite overwhelmed by it.  She felt that this was a lie, and she was not sure that he did not know it.  Of course, it was quite impossible that she could consent to anything like what he had proposed.

“Do you mean because she is from the North and I am from the South?” he asked earnestly.

“No; of course not.  I have Southern blood myself.  My grandmother was from the South.”  She smiled at his simplicity.

“Then why?”