"I'd take the quickest way to get ye, little wee leprechaun."
"Larry, I won't let you off. I do so _want_ to be proposed to."
"My dear," he said gently, "I love ye a very great deal. I want ye to love me a very great deal, and to be my wife."
Both arms went around his neck. She drew his tall head down to her, and kissed him.
He gathered her up and went to sit in a chair big enough to hold them both. He kissed her eyes, her saucy chin, her hair. He told her in tender ways, known only to the Irish, how he loved her, how he wanted to make for her a shield of his love, to keep her safe and happy.
"Larry," she said, solemnly; "I feel as if you were all the people I have loved in my whole life--Ann, Mrs. Benjamin, Jerry, and Herbert----"
"And Percy?" he teased her. "When did ye begin to love me?" he asked, in the old way of lovers.
"I felt it comin' on me, stronger and stronger, at Bermuda, but that night when ye came into my arms in the garden settled it. I had to come and find out who ye thought ye were lovin'."
She only laughed. Luncheon was announced and the family appeared. The meal was more or less the usual midday repast, but to Isabelle and Larry it might have been ambrosia, or sawdust. They made motions of eating, between long glances. Wally and Max tried not to notice, but Miss Watts's face was wreathed in a fatuous smile of satisfaction.
Later, when they went to the living room, she started to slip away, but Isabelle put her arm through the older woman's and led her along.
"We'll face this out together," she whispered.
"We seem to have had the end of this story, Isabelle; suppose we now have the first of it," said her mother in an amused tone.
The Captain and Isabelle smiled at each other.
"Will you recite it, or shall I?" he asked.
"_Chapter One. The good ship 'Astra.' The hero forces his acquaintance upon the heroine . . ._" he began.
"Didn't you want to meet him?" inquired Max, curiously.
"Certainly, but I didn't want him to know it. All the women on board made fools of themselves about him."
"Deceivin' little minx! Is this the way ye brought her up, Mrs. Bryce?"
"I didn't bring her up. She's brought herself up. Go on with the story."
"_The hero curried favour with one Miss Watts in hope of advancing his suit . . ._"