If for a moment the small mouth quivered, the firm little chin lost its firmness, and the proud little head yielded to the pressure of a lover's arm, it was only for a moment so brief and fleeting that Will Carman had hardly become aware of it before it had passed.
"No," said the young person sorrowfully but decidedly. She had arisen and was standing on the other side of the table facing him.
"I cannot marry you while your mother regards me as beneath you."
"When she knows you she will acknowledge you are above me. But I am not asking you to come to my mother, I am asking you to come to me, dear. If you will put your hand in mine and trust to me through all the coming years, no man or woman born can come between us."
But the young person shook her head.
"No," she repeated. "I will not be your wife unless your mother welcomes me with pride and with pleasure."
The night air was still sweet with the perfume of roses as Will Carman passed out of the little cottage door; but he drew in no deep breath of inspiration. His impetuous Irish heart was too heavy with disappointment. It might have been a little lighter, however, had he known that the eyes of the
