forward and unmaidenly, while, for the world, I would not have you or any one else suspect that I had given you my love unsolicited, and so I concealed my feelings under an assumed coldness.”

“Well, I am bound to confess that you are an honest little body,” Philip said, laughing.

“Thank you; I never tried to be anything else,” replied truthful Arley.

Philip winced at this unconscious reproof, for he felt that however much he might be interested in her now, he had not been strictly honest in asking her to be his wife.

“I do not think I shall leave Hazelmere for a few days longer,” he said, smiling. “May I announce another engagement this evening?”

“If you wish,” Arley answered, frankly. “I have no desire to keep it secret.”

And so it was made known at dinner-time, to the surprise of every one, that Arley Wentworth and Philip Paxton were betrothed lovers.