This was a beautiful face, and the expression upon it was different from anything I had seen there before.

Her surprise had disappeared, her pique had gone, but a very great interest in the incident of my passing this spot at the moment of her being there was plainly evident.

As I gazed at her my blood ran warmer through my veins, and there came upon me a feeling of the olden time--of the days when the brave cavalier rode up to the spot where, waiting for him, his lady sat upon her impatient jennet.
Without the least hesitation, I asked: "Do you ride a wheel ?" She looked wonderingly at me for a moment, and then broke into a laugh.
"Why on earth do you ask such a question as that?
I have a bicycle, but I am not a very good rider, and I never venture out upon the public road by myself." "You shouldn't think of such a thing," said I; and then I stood silent, and my mind showed me two young people, each mounted, not upon a swift steed, but upon a far swifter pair of wheels, skimming onward through the summer air, still rolling on, on, on, through country lanes and woodland roads, laughing at pursuit if they heard the trampling of eager hoofs behind them, with never a telegraph wire to stretch menacingly above them, and so on, on, on, their eyes sparkling, their hearts beating high with youthful hope.
Again, through the tender mists of the afternoon, I saw them returning from some secluded Gretna Green to bend their knees and bow their heads before the lord of the fair bride's home.
When all this had passed through my brain, I wondered how such a pair would be received.

I knew the gardener and his wife would welcome them, to begin with; Brownster would be very glad to see them; and I believe the mother would stand with tears of joy and open arms, in whatever quiet room she might feel free to await them.

Moreover, when the sterner parent heard my tale and read my pedigree, might he not consider good name on the one side an equivalent for good money on the other?
I looked up at her; she did not ask me what I had been thinking about nor remark upon my silence.