"Wait a minute. I don"t know yet whether I am to be congratulated or not; that will depend on you. Of course you know I was not speaking of myself when I asked the question."
"Oh, you meant me, did you? Well, I can"t tell for some time to come, but I have my fears. I hear the click of the typewriter in the near future."
"Caroline, I am very serious about this. I don"t believe you think, or could think, that I care much about riches. I have been on too intimate terms with poverty to be afraid of it. Of course my present apparent success has given me courage, and I intend to use that courage while it lasts. I have been rather afraid of your ridicule, but I think, whether you were rich or poor, or whether my book was a success or a failure, I would have risked it, and told you I loved you."
The girl did not look up at him, and did not answer for a moment. Then she said, in a voice that he had to bend very close to hear--
"I--I would have been sorry all my life if you hadn"t--risked it."
THE END.