y the lantern light. She
seemed startled, and, musing, said, 'The postponement of our--intention
must be, I fear, for a long time. I find that after the end of this
month I cannot leave home safely, even for a day.' Perceiving that he
was about to ask why, she added, 'I will not trouble you with the reason
now; it would only harass you. It is only a family business, and cannot
be helped.'

'Then we cannot be married till--God knows when!' said Swithin blankly.
'I cannot leave home till after the next week or two; you cannot leave
home unless within that time. So what are we to do?'

'I do not know.'

'My dear, dear one, don't let us be beaten like this! Don't let a well-
considered plan be overthrown by a mere accident! Here's a remedy. Do
_you_ go and stay the requisite time in the parish we are to be married
in, instead of me. When my grandmother is again well housed I can come
to you, instead of you to me, as we first said. Then it can be done
within the time.'

Reluctantly, shyly, and yet with a certain gladness of heart, she gave
way to his proposal that they should change places in the programme.
There was much that she did not like in it, she said. It seemed to her
as if she were taking the initiative by going and attending to the
preliminaries. It was the man's part to do that, in her opinion, and was
usually undertaken by him.

'But,' argued Swithin, 'there are cases in which the woman does give the
notices, and so on; that is to say, when the man is absolutely hindered
from doing so; and ours is such a case. The seeming is nothing; I know
the truth, and what does it matter? You do not refuse--retract your word
to be my wife, because, to avoid a sickening delay, the formalities
require you to attend to them in place of me?'

She did not refuse, she said. In short she agreed to his entreaty. They
had, in truth, gone so far in their dream of union that there was no
drawing back now. Whichever of them was forced by circumstances to be
the protagonist in the enterprise, the thing must be done. Their
intention to become husband and wife, at first halting and timorous, had
accumulated momentum with the lapse of hours, till it now bore down every
obstacle in its course.

'Since you beg me to,--since there is no alternative between my going and
a long postponement,' she said, as they stood in the dark porch of
Welland House before parting,--'since I am to go first, and seem to be
the pioneer