‘My own true girl!’ he said, speaking with his arms still round her waist.

‘I am true enough; but whether I am your own, that is another question.’

‘You mean to be?’

’But papa doesn’t mean it.  Papa says that you are nobody, and that you haven’t got an income; and thinks that I had better go back and be an old maid at the Mandarins.’

‘And what do you think yourself, Nora?’

’What do I think?  As far as I can understand, young ladies are not allowed to think at all.  They have to do what their papas tell them.  That will do, Hugh.  You can talk without taking hold of me.’

‘It is such a time since I have had a hold of you as you call it.’

’It will be much longer before you can do so again, if I go back to the Islands with papa.  I shall expect you to be true, you know; and it will be ten years at the least before I can hope to be home again.’

‘I don’t think you mean to go, Nora.’

’But what am I to do?  That idea of yours of walking out to the next church and getting ourselves married sounds very nice and independent, but you know that it is not practicable.’

‘On the other hand, I know it is.’

’It is not practicable for me, Hugh.  Of all things in the world I don’t want to be a Lydia.  I won’t do anything that anybody shall ever say that your wife ought not to have done.  Young women when they are married ought to have their papas’ and mammas’ consent.  I have been thinking about it a great deal for the last month or two, and I have made up my mind to that.’

‘What is it all to come to, then?’

‘I mean to get papa’s consent.  That is what it is to come to.’

‘And if he is obstinate?’

’I shall coax him round at last.  When the time for going comes, he’ll yield then.’

‘But you will not go with them?’ As he asked this he came to her and tried again to take her by the waist; but she retreated from him, and got herself clear from us arm.  ’If you are afraid of me, I shall know that you think it possible that we may be parted.’

‘I am not a bit afraid of you, Hugh.’

‘Nora, I think you ought to tell me something definitely.’

’I think I have been definite enough, sir.  You may be sure of this, however I will not go back to the Islands.’

‘Give me your hand on that.’

’There is my hand.  But, remember, I had told you just as much before.  I don’t mean to go back.  I mean to stay here.  I mean—­but I do not think I will tell you all the things I mean to do.’

‘You mean to be my wife?’

’Certainly, some day, when the difficulty about the chairs and tables can settle itself.  The real question now is what am I to do with myself when papa and mamma are gone?’

’Become Mrs H. Stanbury at once.  Chairs and tables!  You shall have chairs and tables as many as you want.  You won’t be too proud to live in lodgings for a few months?’