Acting on the hint thus given, I was not slow to put the question that had even before been trembling on my lips. What words or arguments I employed, it is unnecessary to repeat. After all, my proposal was nothing so very formidable. In consenting to take a seat in my curricle, Reva committed herself to nothing more than a formal acceptance of me as a suitor on probation,—a relation that did not necessarily imply an association more intimate than had practically existed between us for two days past.
"Yet it would have been so pleasant to go on as hitherto," she said with a little sigh; "but that, I suppose, could not be."
"Have these days been so pleasant?" I inquired.
"Yes, very pleasant, both to my father and myself."
"Why not, then, continue as we have been,—as nearly, at least, as may be?"
Reva looked at me inquiringly.
"You have an aversion to binding up your hair?"
"It does seem to me a sign of bondage," was her reply.
260
