And when they were safe inside, he turned to her and
his voice exulted, "I haven't even told you that I love you--I haven't
asked you to marry me--I haven't done any of the conventional
things--it hasn't needed words, and that's the wonder of it."
"Yes."
"But you knew."
"Yes."
"From the first?"
"I think it was from the first--"
"In the Toy Shop?"
"Yes."
"And you thought I was poor--and I thought you were just the girl in
the shop?"
"Isn't it wonderful?"
It was more wonderful than they knew.
"Do you know that my money has always been more important to some
people than I have been? I have thought they cared for me because of
it."
"Ralph said last night that I cared--for the money."
She would not tell him of the other things that Ralph had said. And
even as she thought of him, across the path of her rapture fell the
shadow of Ralph's scorn of Derry.
He bent down to her. "Jean, if I had been that shabby boy that you
first saw in the shop would you have been happy with me, in a plain
little house? Would you?"
Up the streets came the people from the churches--the crowds of people
who had thanked the Lord soberly, feeling meantime a bit bewildered as
to the workings of His Providence.
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