Miss Dora,
I have very little to offer you; a faithful heart to
cherish you, a strong arm to work for you, an
honest name to give into your keeping,--these are
all; but if they have any worth in your eyes, they
are most truly yours forever."
Debby was steadying her voice to reply, when
a troop of bathers came shouting down the bank,
and she took flight into her dressing-room, there
to sit staring at the wall, till the advent of Aunt
Pen forced her to resume the business of the hour
by assuming her aquatic attire and stealing shyly
down into the surf.
Frank Evan, still pacing in the footprints they
had lately made, watched the lithe figure tripping
to and fro, and, as he looked, murmured to himself
the last line of a ballad Debby sometimes sang,--
"Dance light! for my heart it lies under your feet, love!"
Presently a great wave swept Debby up, and
stranded her very near him, much to her confusion
and his satisfaction. Shaking the spray out of her
eyes, she was hurrying away, when Frank said,--
"You will trip, Miss Dora; let me tie these
strings for you;" and, suiting the action to the
word, he knelt down and began to fasten the cords
of her bathing shoe.
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