had served as an expression of the feeling
that would have its way: she had had a long rest, which had relieved the
sense of pent-up and restrained suffering, and vigour and buoyancy were a
part of her character; her tone and manner resumed their cheerfulness,
her spirits came back, though still with the dreary feeling that the hope
and aim of life were gone, when she was left to her own musings; she was
little changed, and went on with daily life, contented and lively over
the details, and returning to her interest in reading, in art, poetry,
and in all good works, while her looks resumed their brightness, and her
mother congratulated herself once more on the rounded cheek and profuse
curls.

At the year's end Humfrey Charlecote renewed his proposal. It was no
small shock to find herself guilty of his having thus long remained
single, and she was touched by his kind forbearance, but there was no
bringing herself either to love him, or to believe that he loved her,
with such love as had been her vision. The image around which she had
bound her heart-strings came between him and her, and again she begged
his pardon, and told him she liked him too well as he was to think of him
in any other light. Again he, with the most tender patience and
humility, asked her to forgive him for having harassed her, and betrayed
so little chagrin that she ascribed his offer to generous compassion at
her desertion.

CHAPTER II

He who lets his feelings run
In soft luxurious flow,
Shrinks when hard service must be done,
And faints at every woe.

Seven years more, and Honora was in mourning for her mother. She was
alone in the world, without any near or precious claim, those clinging
tendrils of her heart rent from their oldest, surest earthly stay, and
her time left vacant from her dearest, most constant occupation. Her
impulse was to devote herself and her fortune at once to the good work
which most engaged her imagination, but Humfrey Charlecote, her sole
relation, since heart complaint had carried off his sister Sarah,
interfered with the authority he had always exercised over her, and
insisted on her waiting one full year before pledging herself to
anything. At one-and-thirty, with her golden hair and light figure, her
delicate skin and elastic step, she was still too young to keep house in
solitude, and she invited to her home a friendless old governess of her
own, sick at heart with standing fo