It is so--so sudden! No one has ever spoken to me as you have done--" He laughed from mere excess of joy, for her pure innocence, her unlikeness, in her ignorance of love and all pertaining to it, to the women he knew, made the charm of her well-nigh maddening.

To think that he should be the first man to speak of love to her! "I am not angry--ought I to be?
Yes, I suppose so.

We are almost strangers--have seen so little of each other." "They say that love, all true love, comes at first sight," he said in his deep voice.

"I used to laugh at the idea; but now I know it is true.

I loved you the first time I met you, Ida!" Her lip quivered and her brows knit.
"It seems so wonderful," she said, musingly, "I do not understand it.
The first time! We scarcely spoke--and I was almost angry with you for fishing in the Heron.