ow?" she said, pouting. "You liked
me better when I was talking about the pigs; didn't you?"

"No; I like you best now."

"And why didn't you like me then? Did I say anything to offend you?"

"I like you best now, because--"

They were standing in the narrow pathway of the gate leading from the
bridge into the gardens of the Great House, and the shadow of the
thick-spreading laurels was around them. But the moonlight still
pierced brightly through the little avenue, and she, as she looked up
to him, could see the form of his face and the loving softness of his
eye.

"Because--," said he; and then he stooped over her and pressed her
closely, while she put up her lips to his, standing on tip-toe that
she might reach to his face.

"Oh, my love!" she said. "My love! my love!"

As Crosbie walked back to the Great House that night, he made a firm
resolution that no consideration of worldly welfare should ever
induce him to break his engagement with Lily Dale. He went somewhat
further also, and determined that he would not put off the marriage
for more than six or eight months, or, at the most, ten, if he could
possibly get his affairs arranged in that time. To be sure, he must
give up everything,--all the aspirations and ambition of his life;
but then, as he declared to himself somewhat mournfully, he was
prepared to do that. Such were his resolutions, and, as he thought of
them in bed, he came to the conclusion that few men were less selfish
than he was.

"But what will they say to us for staying away?" said Lily,
recovering herself. "And I ought to be making the people dance, you
know. Come along, and do make yourself nice. Do waltz with Mary
Eames;--pray, do. If you don't, I won't speak to you all night!"

Acting under which threat, Crosbie did, on his return, solicit the
honour of that young lady's hand, thereby elating her into a seventh
heaven of happiness. What could the world afford better than a waltz
with such a partner as Adolphus Crosbie? And poor Mary Eames could
waltz well; though she could not talk much as she danced, and would
pant a good deal when she stopped. She put too much of her energy
into the motion, and was too anxious to do the mechanical part of the
work in a manner that should be satisfactory to her partner. "Oh!
thank you;--it's very nice. I shall be able to go on again directly."
Her conversation with Crosbie did not get much beyond that, and yet
she felt that she had never done bette