I had not thought about it. But I love you dearly, very dearly,
and I want so much to be your wife. I shall rest so quietly when I
have you to lean upon, you to care for. I am young for you, I
know, but many such matches have proved happy, and ours assuredly
will. You are so good, so noble, so unselfish, that I shall be
happy with you. I shall be a naughty, wayward wife, I fear, but
you can control me, and you must. We'll go to Europe sometime,
Richard, and visit Bingen on the Rhine, where the little baby girl
fell in the river, and the brave boy Richard jumped after her.
Don't you wish you'd let me die? There would then have been no bad
black-haired Edith lying in your lap, and torturing you with fears
that she does not love you as she ought."

Edith's was an April temperament, and already the sun was shining
through the cloud; the load at her heart was not so heavy, nor the
future half so dark. Her decision was made, her destiny accepted,
and henceforth she would abide by it nor venture to look back.

"Are you satisfied to take me on my terms?" she asked, as Richard
did not immediately answer.

He would rather she had loved him more, but it was sudden, he
knew, and she was young. He was terribly afraid, it is true, that
gratitude alone had influenced her actions, but the germ of love
was there, he believed; and by and by it would bear the rich, ripe
fruit. He could wait for that; and he loved her so much, wanted
her so much, needed her so much, that he would take her on any
terms.

"Yes" he said at last, resting his chin upon her bowed head, "I am