She did n't see clearly how she was to marry him unless he asked her , and he had studiously avoided her since the foreclosure . But Nan did not mean to be baffled or to let her lover slip through her fingers for want of a little courage . She was not old Abe Stewart 's daughter for nothing . One day Ned Bennett dropped in and said that John Osborne would start for the west in three days . That evening Nan went up to her room and dressed herself in the prettiest dress she owned , combed her hair around her sparkling face in bewitching curls , pinned a cluster of apple blossoms at her belt , and , thus equipped , marched down in the golden sunset light to the Mill Creek Bridge . John Osborne , on his return from Thornhope half an hour later , found her there , leaning over the rail among the willows . Nan started in well-assumed surprise and then asked him why he had not been to see her . John blushed -- stammered -- did n't know -- had been busy . Nan cut short his halting excuses by demanding to know if he were really going away , and what he intended to do . `` I 'll go out on the prairies and take up a claim , '' said Osborne sturdily . `` Begin life over again free of debt . It 'll be hard work , but I 'm not afraid of that . I will succeed if it takes me years . '' They walked on in silence . Nan came to the conclusion that Osborne meant to hold his peace . `` John , '' she said tremulously , `` wo n't -- wo n't you find it very lonely out there ? '' `` Of course -- I expect that . I shall have to get used to it . '' Nan grew nervous . Proposing to a man was really very dreadful .
`` Would n't it be -- nicer for you '' -- she faltered -- `` that is -- it would n't be so lonely for you -- would it -- if -- if you had me XXXXX there with you ? ''
Of among around if on out over since through to