have confessed our love for
each other? Do you think I shall be faithless? I could almost laugh! As
if any man you deigned to love could ever forget you, ever care a straw
for any other woman!"

She turned to him with a shudder, a little cry that was tragic in its
intensity, turned to him and clenched her small hands on his breast.

"Swear to me!" she panted; then, as if ashamed of the passion that
racked her, her eyes dropped and the swift red flooded her face. "No!
you shall not swear to me, Stafford. I--I will believe you love me as I
shall love you forever and forever! But if--if the time should come
when some other girl shall win you from me, promise me that you will
not tell me, that you will just keep away from me! I could bear it
if--if I did not see you; but if I saw you--Oh!"--something like a moan
escaped her quivering lips, and she flung herself upon his breast with
the _abandon_, the unself-consciousness of a child.

Stafford was moved to his inmost heart, and for a moment, as he held
her within the embrace of his strong arms, he could not command his
voice sufficiently for speech. At last he murmured, his lips seeking
hers:

"Ida! I swear that I will love you forever and forever!"

"But--but--if you break your vow, you promise that you will not come to
me--tell me? I shall know. Promise, ah, promise!"

"Will nothing less content you? Must I?" he said, almost desperate at
her persistence. "Then I promise, Ida!"

CHAPTER XIX.

There is something solemn and awe-inspiring in perfect happiness.

How many times in the day did Ida pull up Rupert and gaze into the
distance with vacant, unseeing eyes, pause in the middle of some common
task, look up from the book she was trying to read, to ask herself
whether she was indeed the same girl who had lived her lonely life at
Herondale, or whether she had changed places with some other
personality, with some girl singularly blessed amongst women.

Jessie and Jason, even the bovine William, who was reputed the
stupidest man in the dale, noticed the change in her, noticed the touch
of colour that was so quick to mount to the ivory cheek, the novel
brightness and tenderness in the deep grey eyes, the new note, the low,
sweet tone of happiness in the clear voice. Her father only remained
unobservant of the subtle change, but he was like a mole burrowing
amongst his book and gloating secretly over the box which he concealed
at the approach of footsteps, t