She spoke with the frankness and ingenuousness of a child, and Drake
stroked her hair as he would that of a child.
"Yes, that's reasonable enough," he said. "But I've lost my money
lately. See?"
She nodded, and looked up at him a little more gravely.
"Yes? I am sorry. I suppose it must have seemed very hard to you. I have
never been rich, but I can imagine that one does not like losing his
money and becoming poor. Poor--Drake!"
"Then, you don't mind?" he inquired. "You don't shrink from the prospect
of being a pauper's bride, Nell?"
She laughed.
"Why should I?" she said simply. "We've always been poor--at least,
nearly since I can remember; and we have always been happy, Dick and I.
Now, it would not have been so nice if you had been very rich."
"Why not?" he asked, lifting a tress of her hair to his lips.
She thought for a moment.
"Oh, don't you see? I should have felt that you had been foolish to--to
love me----" There was an interlude. Should he ever grow tired of
kissing her? he asked himself. "And I should have been afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"Well, that you would be ashamed of me when you took me into the society
of fashionable people, and----Oh, I am very glad that you are not rich!
That sounds unkind, I am afraid."
"Nell," he said solemnly, "I have long suspected that you were an angel
masquerading as a mere woman, but I am now convinced of it."
She laughed, and softly rubbed her cheek against his arm.
"And I have long suspected that you were a rich man and a 'somebody'
masquerading as a poor one, and I am delighted to hear that I was
mistaken."
He started at the first words of her retort, but breathed a sigh of
relief as she concluded.
"Poor or rich, I love you, Nell," he said, with a seriousness which was
almost solemn, "and I will do my level best to make you happy. When you
are my wife----"
The blood rushed to her face, and her head dropped.
"That will be a long time hence," she whispered.
"No, no!" he said quickly, passionately. "I couldn't wait very long,
Nell. But when you are my wife, I will try to prove to you that poor
people can be happy. We shall just have enough to set up a house in some
foreign land."