first believe in his good fortune, having no
understanding of her weariness of more artificial men; but a time comes
when the stupidest sees in an eye the glance of his other half; and it
came to him, who was quite the reverse of dull. As he gained confidence
accidental encounters led to encounters by design; till at length when
they were alone together there was no reserve on the matter. They
whispered tender words as other lovers do, and were as devoted a pair as
ever was seen. But not a ray or symptom of this attachment was allowed
to show itself to the outer world.

Now, as she became less and less scrupulous towards him under the
influence of her affection, and he became more and more reverential under
the influence of his, and they looked the situation in the face together,
their condition seemed intolerable in its hopelessness. That she could
ever ask to be allowed to marry him, or could hold her tongue and quietly
renounce him, was equally beyond conception. They resolved upon a third
course, possessing neither of the disadvantages of these two: to wed
secretly, and live on in outward appearance the same as before. In this
they differed from the lovers of my friend's story.

Not a soul in the parental mansion guessed, when Lady Caroline came
coolly into the hall one day after a visit to her aunt, that, during that
visit, her lover and herself had found an opportunity of uniting
themselves till death should part them. Yet such was the fact; the young
woman who rode fine horses, and drove in pony-chaises, and was saluted
deferentially by every one, and the young man who trudged about, and
directed the tree-felling, and the laying out of fish-ponds in the park,
were husband and wife.

As they had planned, so they acted to the letter for the space of a month
and more, clandestinely meeting when and where they best could do so;
both being supremely happy and content. To be sure, towards the latter
part of that month, when the first wild warmth of her love had gone off,
the Lady Caroline sometimes wondered within herself how she, who might
have chosen a peer of the realm, baronet, knight; or, if serious-minded,
a bishop or judge of the more gallant sort who prefer young wives, could
have brought herself to do a thing so rash as to make this marriage;
particularly when, in their private meetings, she perceived that though
her young husband was full of ideas, and fairly well read, they had not a
single social