coward!" Sitting on the broad veranda at sunset, the cousins heard the whistle of the train at the station, miles away, that was to bring Dainty, if she decided to come. "That is Love's train, if he comes," said their aunt. "But there must be some delay, or he would have telegraphed for the carriage." [19] [19] CHAPTER III. THE HAPPIEST DAY SHE HAD EVER KNOWN. THE HAPPIEST DAY SHE HAD EVER KNOWN. Olive and Ela sighed with relief, hoping something had happened after all, to keep Dainty at home; but they would have been horrified if they had guessed that Ellsworth had not telegraphed his aunt, choosing to secure a trap at the station, and have a tête-à-tête drive over the road with winsome Dainty. They had started even now, the young man driving a light buggy, with Dainty's trunk strapped on securely at the back. They went at a leisurely pace, for which he accounted by saying lightly: "I hope you won't mind because we have to travel slowly. The road is rough, and the horse slow—what we call in the country a 'courting horse,'" smiling at her with quizzical dark eyes that made Dainty blush like a rose. "Do not be frightened. I will try to remember that I have known you but a day," he added, softly; and they were silent for a while, while Dainty's eyes drank in the sunset beauty of the mountain scenery. "What a glorious view! I never before saw anything so beautiful!" she cried. "Would you like to live in West Virginia?" he asked, eagerly. "Oh, I don't know!" trembling somehow at his pointed tone, and adding, quickly: "I—I couldn't be happy anywhere without mamma!" [20]And yet she knew in her heart that this day of separation from all that she had hitherto known had been the most ecstatic of her whole life, filled with thrilling sensations that emanated from the attentions of the man by her side. [20] "Oh, there are looks and tones that dart
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