ermitted, like the doctors, to cure a greater evil by a less, for I
shall not fall seriously in love with the young widow, I think, nor she
with me--that's certain--but if I find a little pleasure in her society I
may surely be allowed to seek it; and if the star of her divinity be
bright enough to dim the lustre of Eliza's, so much the better, but I
scarcely can think it.'

And thereafter I seldom suffered a fine day to pass without paying a
visit to Wildfell about the time my new acquaintance usually left her
hermitage; but so frequently was I baulked in my expectations of another
interview, so changeable was she in her times of coming forth and in her
places of resort, so transient were the occasional glimpses I was able to
obtain, that I felt half inclined to think she took as much pains to
avoid my company as I to seek hers; but this was too disagreeable a
supposition to be entertained a moment after it could conveniently be
dismissed.

One calm, clear afternoon, however, in March, as I was superintending the
rolling of the meadow-land, and the repairing of a hedge in the valley, I
saw Mrs. Graham down by the brook, with a sketch-book in her hand,
absorbed in the exercise of her favourite art, while Arthur was putting
on the time with constructing dams and breakwaters in the shallow, stony
stream. I was rather in want of amusement, and so rare an opportunity
was not to be neglected; so, leaving both meadow and hedge, I quickly
repaired to the spot, but not before Sancho, who, immediately upon
perceiving his young friend, scoured at full gallop the intervening
space, and pounced upon him with an impetuous mirth that precipitated the
child almost into the middle of the beck; but, happily, the stones
preserved him from any serious wetting, while their smoothness prevented
his being too much hurt to laugh at the untoward event.

Mrs. Graham was studying the distinctive characters of the different
varieties of trees in their winter nakedness, and copying, with a
spirited, though delicate touch, their various ramifications. She did
not talk much, but I stood and watched the progress of her pencil: it was
a pleasure to behold it so dexterously guided by those fair and graceful
fingers. But ere long their dexterity became impaired, they began to
hesitate, to tremble slightly, and make false strokes, and then suddenly
came to a pause, while their owner laughingly raised her face to mine,
and told me that her sketch did