Now, when she looked down the same avenue of prospect as himself, he could gracefully ask her to adorn the fair scene with her presence.
"Alice," he said, and at the sound of her name the girl started from a reverie in which Lewis was not absent, and looked vacantly in his face.
He took it for maidenly modesty.
"I have wanted to speak to you for long, Alice.

We have seen a good deal of each other lately, and I have come to be very fond of you.

I trust you may have some liking for me, for I want you to promise to be my wife." He told his love in regular sentences.

Unconsciously he had fallen into the soft patronizing tone in which aforetime he had shepherded a Sunday school.
The girl looked at the large sentimental face and laughed.

She felt ashamed of her rudeness even in the act.
He caught her hands, and before she knew his face was close to hers.
"Promise me, dear," he said.