d never ceased to be a lover;
no personal worries had as yet made him conscious of any staleness,
flatness, or unprofitableness in his admiration of Christine.

'Not quite so wildly, Nic,' she whispered. 'I don't object personally;
but they'll notice us. How came you here?'

'I heard that you had driven over; and I set out--on purpose for this.'

'What--you have walked?'

'Yes. If I had waited for one of uncle's horses I should have been too
late.'

'Five miles here and five back--ten miles on foot--merely to dance!'

'With you. What made you think of this old "Honeymoon" thing?'

'O! it came into my head when I saw you, as what would have been a
reality with us if you had not been stupid about that licence, and had
got it for a distant church.'

'Shall we try again?'

'No--I don't know. I'll think it over.'

The villagers admired their grace and skill, as the dancers themselves
perceived; but they did not know what accompanied that admiration in one
spot, at least.

'People who wonder they can foot it so featly together should know what
some others think,' a waterman was saying to his neighbour. 'Then their
wonder would be less.'

His comrade asked for information.

'Well--really I hardly believe it--but 'tis said they be man and wife.
Yes, sure--went to church and did the job a'most afore 'twas light one
morning. But mind, not a word of this; for 'twould be the loss of a
winter's work to me if I had spread such a report and it were not true.'

When the dance had ended she rejoined her own section of the company. Her
father and Mr. Bellston the elder had now come out from the house, and
were smoking in the background. Presently she found that her father was
at her elbow.

'Christine, don't dance too often with young Long--as a mere matter of
prudence, I mean, as volk might think it odd, he being one of our own
neighbouring farmers. I should not mention this to 'ee if he were an
ordinary young fellow; but being superior to the rest it behoves you to
be careful.'

'Exactly, papa,' said Christine.

But the revived sense that she was deceiving him threw a damp over her
spirits. 'But, after all,' she said to herself, 'he is a young man of
Elsenford, handsome, able, and the soul of honour; and I am a young woman
of the adjoining parish, who have been constantly thrown into
communication with him. Is it not, by nature's rule, the most proper
thing in the world that I should marry him, and is