"
So she gave away a part of his gift, and thanked him with her eyes.
It was after the boys had gone that Derry had a talk alone with Dr.
McKenzie.
"But you haven't known her a month--"
"I have wanted her all my life."
"I see--how old are you?"
"Thirty-one."
"You don't look it."
"No. And I don't feel it. Not to-day."
"And you think that she cares?"
"What do you think, sir?"
The Doctor threw up his hands. "Oh, lad, lad, there's all the wonder
of it in her eyes when she looks at you."
When Derry went at last to find Jean, she was not in the library. He
crossed the hall to the little drawing-room. His love sat by the fire
alone.
"My darling--"
Thus she came to his arms. But even then he held her gently,
worshipping her innocence and respecting it.
The next morning he brought her a ring. It was such a wonderful ring
that she held her breath. She sat on the rose-colored davenport while
he put it on her finger.
"If I had been the girl in the Toy Shop," she told him, "and you had
been the shabby boy, you would have given me a gold band with three
little stones--and I should have liked that, too.
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