Then how they did talk! Jack repeated all the old inaccuracies which
lovers have called up since the Stone Age, the burden of which was that
the memory of her face had been his light in the darkest mine; the memory
of her voice had been the music for which his soul had been listening for
years.

And Rose told the enraptured young man how hard her lot had been to
conceal a love which she had no right to own, because it had never
been asked; how hard it had been for her to simulate contentment and
cheerfulness, but after all how it had been her comfort and support,
because she had never doubted that he would come back.

Then Jack, between kisses, told his charmer that he had worked every day
for years; that he had gathered up quite a many good pounds; that if she
would be his wife, if nothing could be done in England, they would bid
England good-bye and make their home beyond the sea. And she consented,
adding: "If you have to run away again, see that you do not go alone. You
were always so wild that from the first you have needed some careful
person to look after you."

An hour later, Grace came, unlocked the door, and found the happy pair
arm-in-arm walking up and down the room. Going up to them, and looking
into their faces, she said:

"Why, Rose, you have been crying; what is wrong, dear?"

"Nothing is wrong," she answered, "nothing is wrong, and I have not
been crying; have I, Jack? But, Grace, was it fair to give me no hint,
and thus permit Jack to surprise me into giving away something that I
ought to have kept him on the rack for a month at least about before