Page:Wiggin--Ladies-in-waiting.djvu/197

  looked lovely when she blushed, and she hadn’t lost the trick of it even at thirty-six.

“I know it’s soon; but never mind getting ready. If you won’t say Monday, make it Tuesday—do.”

She shook her head again.

“Wednesday, then. Do say Wednesday, Huldy dear.”

The same smile of gentle negation.

He dropped her hand disconsolately.

“Then I’ll have to come back at Christmas-time, I s’pose. It’s just my busy season now, or I would stay right here on this doorstep till you was ready, for it seems to me as if I’d been waiting for you ever since I was born, and could n’t get you too soon.”

“Do you really want me to marry you so much, Pitt?”

“Never wanted anything so bad in my life.”

“Did n’t you wonder I was n’t more surprised to see you to-day?”

“Nothing surprises me in women-folks.”

“Well, it was because I’ve dreamed of a