been along this path at dusk three
or four times since our last meeting? Well, how are you?"

She did not refuse her hand, but when he showed a wish to retain it a
moment longer than mere formality required, she made it smaller, so
that it slipped away from him, with again that same alarmed look which
always followed his attempts in this direction. He saw that she was not
yet out of the elusive mood; not yet to be treated presumingly; and he
was correspondingly careful to tranquillize her.

His assertion had seemed to impress her somewhat. "I had no idea you
came so often," she said. "How far do you come from?"

"From Exbury. I always walk from Sherton-Abbas, for if I hire, people
will know that I come; and my success with you so far has not been
great enough to justify such overtness. Now, my dear one--as I MUST
call you--I put it to you: will you see me a little oftener as the
spring advances?"

Grace lapsed into unwonted sedateness, and avoiding the question, said,
"I wish you would concentrate on your profession, and give up those
strange studies that used to distract you so much. I am sure you would
get on."

"It is the very thing I am doing. I was going to ask you to burn--or,
at least, get rid of--all my philosophical literature. It is in the
bookcases in your rooms. The fact is, I never cared much for abstruse
studies."

"I am so glad to hear you say that. And those other books--those piles
of old plays--what good are they to a medical man?"

"None whatever!" he replied, cheerfully. "Sell them at Sherton for
what they will fetch."

"And those dreadful old French romances, with their horrid spellings of
'filz' and 'ung' and 'ilz' and 'mary' and 'ma foy?'"

"You haven't been reading them, Grace?"

"Oh no--I just looked into them, that was all."

"Make a bonfire of 'em directly you get home. I meant to do it myself.
I can't think what possessed me ever to collect them. I have only a
few professional hand-books now, and am quite a practical man. I am in
hopes of having some good news to tell you soon, and then do you think
you could--come to me again?"

"I would rather you did not press me on that just now," she replied,
with some feeling. "You have said you mean to lead a new, useful,
effectual life; but I should like to see you put it in practice for a
little while before you address that query to me. Besides--I could not
live with you."

"Why not?"

Grace was silent a few instan