Page:The Snake's Pass (Stoker).djvu/313

 "I would like to have come out to meet you, but I thought you would rather meet me here!" Then, as we went into the sitting-room, hand-in-hand, she whispered again:—

"Aunt has gone to buy groceries, so we are all alone. You must tell me all about everything."

We sat down close together, still hand-in-hand, and I told her all that we had done since I had left. When I had finished the Paris part of the story, she put up her hands before her face, and I could see the tears drop through her fingers.

"Norah! Norah! Don't cry, my darling! What is it?"

"Oh, Arthur, I can't help it! It is so wonderful—more than all I ever longed or wished for!" Then she took her hands away, and put them in mine, and looked me bravely in the face, with her eyes half-laughing and half-crying, and her cheeks wet, and said:—

"Arthur, you are the Fairy Prince! There is nothing that I can wish for that you have not done—even my dresses are ready by your sweet thoughtfulness. It needs an effort, dear, to let you do all this—but I see it is quite right—I must be dressed like one who is to be your wife. I shall think I am pleasing you afresh, every time I put one of them on; but I must pay for them myself. You know I am quite rich now. I have all the money you paid for the Cliff Fields; father says it ought to go in such things as will fit me for my new position, and will not hear of taking any of it."