"Well, if you say so, but--but--I suppose some folks would think we
were rather young."

"Well, I'm not so young as I used to be--and I'm growing older every
day."

"So am I. I am not near as young as I was when we first met--on that
little steamboat on Cayuga Lake, when you and Tom and Sam were going
to Putnam Hall for the first time."

"No, you're not quite so young, Dora, but you are just as pretty. In
fact, you're prettier than ever."

"Oh, you just say that!"

"I mean it, and I'm the happiest fellow in the world this minute,"
cried Dick, and caught her again in his arms. Once more the hat went
over on Dora's ear, but this time she forgot to mention it. Truth to
tell, for the time being she was just as happy as he was.

But presently her face grew troubled, and he remembered the look she
had given him at the depot.

"Something is on your mind, Dora," he said. "What is it?"

"Dick, do you know that Tad Sobber is alive? That he escaped from that
dreadful hurricane in West Indian waters?"

"Yes, I know it. But I didn't know it until a few days ago, when
Songbird Powell came to Brill He said he had met Sobber in Ithaca,"