Nell of Shorne Mills

He looked down at her--he was sitting on the bowlder now, and she was on

the sand at his feet, her head resting against him, his arm round her.

"Mrs. Lorton knows nothing about me," he said. "I'm afraid, when she

knows----"

His words did not affect her. In a sense, she was scarcely noting them.

This new happiness, this unspeakable joy, was taking complete possession

of her. That his lips should have touched hers, that his arm should be

round her, that her head should be resting against him, his kisses upon

her hair, was all so wonderful that she could scarcely realize it. Would

she awake presently and find that she was in her own room, with the

pillow wet with the tears that had fallen because "Mr. Drake Vernon" had

left Shorne Mills forever?

"Does she not?" she said easily. "She knows as much about you as I do,

and I am content. But mamma will be pleased, because she likes you. And

Dick"--she laughed, and her eyes glowed with her love for the boy--"Dick

will yell, and will tease me out of my life. But he will be glad,

because he is so very fond of you. What do you do to make everybody like

you so much, Mr. Vernon?"

"Oh, 'Drake, Drake, Drake'!" he said.

"Drake," she murmured, and he stifled the word on her lips with kisses.

"I'm by no means sure that Mrs. Lorton will be pleased," he said, after

a moment. "See here, Nell--I never saw such hair as yours. It is dark,

almost black, and yet it is soft and like silk----"

"And it is all coming down. Ah, no, you cannot coil it up. Let it be for

a moment. Do you really like it? Dick says it is like a horse's mane."

"Dick is a rude young scamp to whom I shall have to teach respect for

his sister. But Mrs. Lorton, dearest--I'm afraid she won't be pleased. I

ought to have told you, Nell, that I'm a poor man."

"Are you?"

She nestled a little closer, and scooped up the sand with her disengaged

hand--the one he was not holding--and she spoke with an indifference

which filled Drake to the brim with satisfaction.

"Yes," he said. "I was not always so poor; but I am one who has had

losses, as Shakespeare puts it."

"I am sorry," she said simply, but still with a kind of indifference.

"Mamma said you must be rich because you--well, persons who are poor

don't keep three horses and give diamond bracelets for presents."