"I finally decided to go out and buy the ring.I went down the escalator at the T stop in theSquare and went up the escalator and went down theescalator," he remembers.

"He had strong bachelor feelings," Stewartsays.

Gwertzman picked Stewart up at the airport whenshe returned to Boston and drove her to a bed andbreakfast in Kennebunkport, Maine, where heproposed at dinner that night.

"It was really romantic the way he asked," sheremembers. "All of a sudden the conversation gotonto marriage again. He's warning me, `You knowI'm going to be working very hard. I'm verydriven.'"

"After all these warnings, he says, `Well,we're agreed then.' He starts fumbling in hispocket. I went, `woah,'" Stewart says.

"He pulls [the ring] out and slides it acrossand says, `Will you marry me?'" she says. "And Isaid yes."

Long Distance Love Affair

While Gwertzman and Stewart are embarking on along distance relationship, Victoria Clisham '95and her fiance Scott Speder, a student at theUniversity of Arizona, are bringing theircross-country love affair to a close.

The couple, who have dated via telephone andairplanes for two years, will finally be togetherwhen they marry on August 4 in Wisconsin and moveto Arizona.

"It's been hard," she says. "I have a humungousphone bill."

Clisham and Speder almost didn't meet. Threeyears ago Speder was involved in a disastrous caraccident which should have killed him, she says.

"He is one of those miracle children," Clishamsays.

But Speder did survive and spent a summerrecuperating in Wisconsin while living with hisgrandparents, who are friends with Clisham'sfamily.

"The first summer I met him, he was there thewhole summer," she says. "We've always spentsummers together and all of the school holidays."

Clisham says she is not concerned aboutmarrying Speder even though they've never spentmore than three months together at a stretch.