se, 'you
certainly would not need to be uneasy if I were to do this that you want
me to do. You would have me safe enough in your trap then; I couldn't
get away!'

'That's just it!' he said vehemently. 'It is a trap--you feel it so, and
that though you wouldn't be able to get away from me you might
particularly wish to! Ah, if I had asked you two years ago you would
have agreed instantly. But I thought I was bound to wait for the
proposal to come from you as the superior!'

'Now you are angry, and take seriously what I meant purely in fun. You
don't know me even yet! To show you that you have not been mistaken in
me, I do propose to carry out this licence. I'll marry you, dear
Nicholas, to-morrow morning.'

'Ah, Christine! I am afraid I have stung you on to this, so that I
cannot--'

'No, no, no!' she hastily rejoined; and there was something in her tone
which suggested that she had been put upon her mettle and would not
flinch. 'Take me whilst I am in the humour. What church is the licence
for?'

'That I've not looked to see--why our parish church here, of course. Ah,
then we cannot use it! We dare not be married here.'

'We do dare,' said she. 'And we will too, if you'll be there.'

'If I'll be there!'

They speedily came to an agreement that he should be in the church-porch
at ten minutes to eight on the following morning, awaiting her; and that,
immediately after the conclusion of the service which would make them
one, Nicholas should set out on his long-deferred educational tour,
towards the cost of which she was resolving to bring a substantial
subscription with her to church. Then, slipping from him, she went
indoors by the way she had come, and Nicholas bent his steps homewards.

CHAPTER II

Instead of leaving the spot by the gate, he flung himself over the fence,
and pursued a direction towards the river under the trees. And it was
now, in his lonely progress, that he showed for the first time outwardly
that he was not altogether unworthy of her. He wore long water-boots
reaching above his knees, and, instead of making a circuit to find a
bridge by which he might cross the Froom--the river aforesaid--he made
straight for the point whence proceeded the low roar that was at this
hour the only evidence of the stream's existence. He speedily stood on
the verge of the waterfall which caused the noise, and stepping into the
water at the top of the fall, waded through with the sure