at it all, she felt that at that
time there had been something of triumph at her heart. A girl when
she is courted knows at any rate that she is thought worthy of
courtship, and in this instance she had been at least courted
worthily. Since then a whole world of trouble had come upon her
from that source. She had been driven hither and thither, first by
love, and then by a false idea of duty, till she had come almost to
shipwreck. And in her tossing she had gone against another barque
which, for aught she knew, might even yet go down from the effects of
the collision. She could not be all happy, even though she were again
leaning on Walter Marrable's arm, or again sitting with it round her
waist, beneath the shade of the trees on the banks of the Lurwell.

"Then we must wait, and this time we must be patient," she said, when
he told her of poor Sir Gregory's headache.

"I cannot ask him for anything," said Walter.

"Of course not. Do not ask anybody for anything,--but just wait. I
have quite made up my mind that forty-five for the gentleman, and
thirty-five for the lady, is quite time enough for marrying."

"The grapes are sour," said Walter.

"They are not sour at all, sir," said Mary.

"I was speaking of my own grapes, as I look at them when I use that
argument for my own comfort. The worst of it is that when we know
that the grapes are not sour,--that they are the sweetest grapes in
the world,--the argument is of no use. I won't tell any lies about
it, to myself or anybody else. I want my grapes at once."

"And so do I," said Mary, eagerly; "of course I do. I am not going to
make any pretence with you. Of course I want them at once. But I have
learned to know that they are precious enough to be worth the waiting
for. I made a fool of myself once; but I shall not do it again, let
Sir Gregory make himself ever so disagreeable."

This was all very pleasant for Captain Marrable. Ah, yes! what other
moment in a man's life is at all equal to that in which he is being
flattered to the top of his bent by the love of the woman he loves.
To be flattered by the love of a woman whom he does not love is
almost equally unpleasant,--if the man be anything of a man. But at
the present moment our Captain was supremely happy. His Thais was
telling him that he was indeed her king, and should he not take the
goods with which the gods provided him? To have been robbed of his
all by a father, and to have an uncle who would have a