You know I might grow to believing it and you." "But it is true, Betty, and you may believe me," I answered, very earnestly, taking her hand from her lap.
She permitted me to hold her hand for a moment, and said:-- "I am so desirous of keeping my regard for you and of holding your regard for me that I am tempted to tell you I fear it will all change if I find you inclined to doubt that I am an honest girl." "I do not doubt it, Betty," I answered.

"I know you and respect you, and you shall have no good cause to change your regard for me, if you have any." "Frequently gentlemen are rude to me in the tap-room, and I submit rather than make trouble by resenting it, but you have always been respectful, and--and I have appreciated it, Baron Ned.

Father says I need not go to the tap-room hereafter, but may direct the maids in the house, now that I am growing old--near twenty." "Twenty ?" I asked.

And she nodded her head proudly.
"Yes." "I thought you were still a child," I remarked.
"No, no," she returned, looking up to me open-eyed and very serious.

"I am a woman." "Yes, a beautiful child-woman--the most beautiful in all the world," I said, grasping her hand and holding it a moment till its fluttering ceased.