any hobgoblin, jealous of my joy should spirit you away from me."

Together and rather silently we go through the wood and out into the road beyond. I am conscious that every now and then Marmaduke's eyes seek my face and dwell there with a smile in them that betrays his extreme and utter satisfaction. As for me, I am neither glad nor sorry, nor anything, but rather fearful of the consequence when my engagement shall be made public in the home circle. As yet my marriage is a thing so faint, so far away in the dim distance, that it causes me little or no annoyance.

Suddenly I stop short in the middle of the road and burst into irrepressible laughter.

"What is it?" asks Mr. Carrington, who is smiling in sympathy.

"Oh that sneeze!" I say when I can speak "coming just in the middle of your proposal. Could anything have been so unsuitable, so utterly out of place? That odious little convulsion! I shall always think of the whole scene with abhorrence."

"Suppose I propose to you all over again?" suggests Mr. Carrington. "It is impossible you can bring it in so unfortunately a second time; and you can then recollect the important event with more complaisance."

"No, no. A second addition would be flat, stale, and unprofitable; and besides, it does not really matter, does it? Only I suppose it would be more correct to feel grave and tearful, instead of comical, on such occasions."

"_Nothing_ matters," exclaims Marmaduke, fervently, seizing my hand and kissing it, "since you have promised to be my wife. And _soon_ Phyllis--is it not so?"

"Oh, no; _certainly_ not _soon_," I return, decidedly. "There is plenty of time. There is no hurry; and I do not want to be married for _ever_ so long."

My lover's countenance falls.

"What do you mean by 'ever so long?'" he asks.

"Two or three years, perhaps."

"Phyllis! how can you be so unreasonable, so _absurd?_" says he, his face flushing. "_Two years!_ It is an eternity. Say six months, if you will; though even _that_ is a ridiculous delay."

"If you talk like that," I say, stopping to stare fixedly at him, "I will not marry you at all. We had better decide the question at once. If you mean to say you think seriously I will marry you in _six months_, 

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