nt there, there is abundance to do
above the summer-house on the hill, which we can settle our own way."

If the two friends found in their occupation abundance of present
employment, there was no lack either of entertaining reminiscences of
early times, in which Charlotte took her part as well. They determined,
moreover, that as soon as their immediate labors were finished, they
would go to work upon the journal, and in this way, too, reproduce the
past.

For the rest, when Edward and Charlotte were alone, there were fewer
matters of private interest between them than formerly. This was
especially the case since the fault-finding about the grounds, which
Edward thought so just, and which he felt to the quick. He held his
tongue about what the Captain had said for a long time; but at last,
when he saw his wife again preparing to go to work above the
summer-house, with her paths and steps, he could not contain himself any
longer, but, after a few circumlocutions, came out with his new views.

Charlotte was thoroughly disturbed. She was sensible enough to perceive
at once that they were right, but there was the difficulty with what was
already done--and what was made was made. She had liked it; even what
was wrong had become dear to her in its details. She fought against her
convictions; she defended her little creations; she railed at men who
were forever going to the broad and the great. They could not let a
pastime, they could not let an amusement alone, she said, but they must
go and make a work out of it, never thinking of the expense which their
larger plans involved. She was provoked, annoyed, and angry. Her old
plans she could not give up, the new she would not quite throw from her;
but, divided as she was, for the present she put a stop to the work, and
gave herself time to think the thing over, and let it ripen by itself.

At the same time that she lost this source of active amusement, the
others were more and more together over their own business. They took
to occupying themselves, moreover, with the flower-garden and the
hot-houses; and as they filled up the intervals with the ordinary
gentlemen's amusements, hunting, riding, buying, selling, breaking
horses, and such matters, she was every day left more and more to
herself. She devoted herself more assiduously than ever to her
correspondence on account of the Captain; and yet she had many lonely
hours; so that the information which she now received from th