That's the only comfort I can give you." He smiled his whimsical smile.

"I think you will find that you will be courted in the regular, old-fashioned way, and proposed to with as much solemnity and uncertainty as if you were back at home, and it will be left for you to choose your own husband.

We have two ministers of the gospel here, you know.

I predict some rather violent courtships, and perhaps a few ill-advised marriages, but you may rest assured that no man is going to claim you until you claim him." He was looking straight into her eyes.

She felt the blood mounting to her cheek,--and was conscious of a strange, delicious sensation as of peril stealing over her.
"You are most reassuring," she managed to say, scarcely above a whisper, and then paused expectant.
Afterwards she was shamed by the exquisite pain of anticipation that had coursed through her in that moment of waiting.