ay now, and she was engaged to be
his wife.

As he thought of it after he had done it, it was not all happiness,
all contentment, with him. He did feel that he had crippled
himself,--impeded himself in running the race, as it were, with a
log round his leg. He had offered to marry her, and he must do so at
once, or almost at once, because she could now find no other home but
his. He knew, as well as did Lady Fawn, that she could not go into
another family as governess; and he knew also that she ought not to
remain in Lady Fawn's house an hour longer than she would be wanted
there. He must alter his plan of living at once, give up the luxury
of his rooms at the Grosvenor, take a small house somewhere, probably
near the Swiss Cottage, come up and down to his chambers by the
underground railway, and, in all probability, abandon Parliament
altogether. He was not sure whether, in good faith, he should not at
once give notice of his intended acceptance of the Chiltern Hundreds
to the electors of Bobsborough. Thus meditating, under the influence
of that intermittent evil grasp, almost angry with himself for the
open truth which he had spoken,--or rather written, and perhaps
thinking more of Lizzie and her beauty than he should have done, in
the course of three weeks he had paid but one visit to Fawn Court.
Then, of a sudden, finding himself one afternoon relieved from work,
he resolved to go there. The days were still almost at their longest,
and he did not scruple to present himself before Lady Fawn between
eight and nine in the evening. They were all at tea, and he was
welcomed kindly. Lucy, when he was announced, at once got up and met
him almost at the doorway, sparkling with just a tear of joy in her
eye, with a look in her face, and a loving manner, which for the
moment made him sure that the little house near the Swiss Cottage
would, after all, be the only Elysium upon earth. If she spoke a word
he hardly heard it, but her hand was in his, so cool and soft, almost
trembling in its grasp, with no attempt to withdraw itself, frank,
loving, and honest. There was a perfect satisfaction in her greeting
which at once told him that she had no discontented thoughts,--had
had no such thought,--because he had been so long without coming. To
see him was a great joy. But every hour of her life was a joy to her,
knowing, as she did know, that he loved her.

Lady Fawn was gracious, the girls were hospitable, and he found
himself m