But--I put it to your kindness--grant me one little request.'

He instantly assented.

'It is that, in consideration of my peculiar position in this county,--O,
you can't understand it!--you will not put an end to the absolute secrecy
of our relationship without my full assent. Also, that you will never
come to Welland House without first discussing with me the advisability
of the visit, accepting my opinion on the point. There, see how a timid
woman tries to fence herself in!'

'My dear lady-love, neither of those two high-handed courses should I
have taken, even had you not stipulated against them. The very essence
of our marriage plan is that those two conditions are kept. I see as
well as you do, even more than you do, how important it is that for the
present,--ay, for a long time hence--I should still be but the curate's
lonely son, unattached to anybody or anything, with no object of interest
but his science; and you the recluse lady of the manor, to whom he is
only an acquaintance.'

'See what deceits love sows in honest minds!'

'It would be a humiliation to you at present that I could not bear if a
marriage between us were made public; an inconvenience without any
compensating advantage.'

'I am so glad you assume it without my setting it before you! Now I know
you are not only good and true, but politic and trustworthy.'

'Well, then, here is our covenant. My lady swears to marry me; I, in
return for such great courtesy, swear never to compromise her by
intruding at Welland House, and to keep the marriage concealed till I
have won a position worthy of her.'

'Or till I request it to be made known,' she added, possibly foreseeing a
contingency which had not occurred to him.

'Or till you request it,' he repeated.

'It is agreed,' murmured Lady Constantine,

XVI

After this there only remained to be settled between them the practical
details of the project.

These were that he should leave home in a couple of days, and take
lodgings either in the distant city of Bath or in a convenient suburb of
London, till a sufficient time should have elapsed to satisfy legal
requirements; that on a fine morning at the end of this time she should
hie away to the same place, and be met at the station by St. Cleeve,
armed with the marriage license; whence they should at once proceed to
the church fixed upon for the ceremony; returning home independently in
the course of the next two or three days.