e in the
county."

"It can't be nearly so large as your father's house in Yorkshire."

"No; certainly it is not. Aylmer Park is a large place; but the house
does not stretch itself out so wide as that; nor does it stand on
the side of a hill so as to show out its proportions with so much
ostentation. The coach-house and the stables, and the old brewhouse,
seem to come half way down the hill. And when I was a boy I had much
more respect for my aunt's red-brick house in Perivale than I had for
Aylmer Park."

"And now it's your own."

"Yes; now it's my own,--and all my respect for it is gone. I used to
think the Creevy the best river in England for fish; but I wouldn't
give a sixpence now for all the perch I ever caught in it."

"Perhaps your taste for perch is gone also."

"Yes; and my taste for jam. I never believed in the store-room at
Aylmer Park as I did in my aunt's store-room here."

"I don't doubt but what it is full now."

"I dare say; but I shall never have the curiosity even to inquire.
Ah, dear,--I wish I knew what to do about the house."

"You won't sell it, I suppose?"

"Not if I could either live in it, or let it. It would be wrong to
let it stand idle."

"But you need not decide quite at once."

"That's just what I want to do. I want to decide at once."

"Then I'm sure I cannot advise you. It seems to me very unlikely
that you should come and live here by yourself. It isn't like a
country-house exactly."

"I shan't live there by myself certainly. You heard what Mrs.
Partridge said just now."

"What did Mrs. Partridge say?"

"She wanted to know whether it belonged to both of us, and whether it
was not all one. Shall it be all one, Clara?"

She was leaning over the rail of the bridge as he spoke, with her
eyes fixed on the slowly moving water. When she heard his words,
she raised her face and looked full upon him. She was in some sort
prepared for the moment, though it would be untrue to say that she
had now expected it. Unconsciously she had made some resolve that
if ever the question were put to her by him, she would not be taken
altogether off her guard; and now that the question was put to her,
she was able to maintain her composure. Her first feeling was one
of triumph,--as it must be in such a position to any woman who has
already acknowledged to herself that she loves the man who then asks
her to be his wife. She looked up into Captain Aylmer's face, and his
eye almost quailed b