"
"I am not so sure of that. It might increase the difficulty."
At this moment I thought I heard the handle of the door move, but there
was a screen between us and it. I went on.
"That is, if you still want to marry her, you know."
"Marry her!" he said. "If she were a beggar-maid, I would be proud as King
Cophetua to marry her to-morrow."
There was a rustle in the twilight, and a motion of its gloom. With a
quick gliding, Adela drew near, knelt beside Harry, and hid her eyes on
his knee. I thought it better to go.
Was this unmaidenly of her?
I say "No, for she knew that he loved her."
As I left the room, I heard the colonel call--
"Adela."
And when I returned, I found them both standing by the bedside, and the
old man holding a hand of each.
"Now, John Smith," I said to myself, "you may go when you please."
Before we, that is, I and my reader, part, however, my reader may be
inclined to address me thus:
"Pray, Mr. Smith, do you think it was your wonderful prescription of
story-telling, that wrought Miss Cathcart's cure?"
"How can I tell?" I answer.
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