Margaret Vincent

knew no more about him in the last month than she had done in the first. But gradually she grew fond of him. She wa

rassed him a good deal, but he was touched by it. Then he realized almost with surprise the clear outline of her face and the sweet, firm curve of her lips. He told himself of her merits, her domestic virtues, and the manner in which, single-handed and calm-headed, she managed the farm. Gradually it came about that, instead of staying in his own room in the evening, he sat with her-he on one side and she on the other of t

nce to simple rules of life. And somehow, in a quiet, unexcited way, he became fascinated. Here was the natural human being, he thought, as God had meant it to be, unadulterated by scholarship or passion or knowledge of the world. He felt that he and she and nature made a trinity framed by the Surrey hills and all the beautiful country round them. He wanted no other home than the farm, no other method of getting about than the brown, wooden cart and the broken-winded cob, no other companion than this sedate woman who knew nothing of his history or inward life, yet w

ly whether it is right of me to go on st

, grave eyes, and surprise was in her voice. "I'm sure

have heard that he was a

ng what was right rather than with the saying of prayers, though Jame

seem necessary to him to tell her that his father had been a peer, or that his brother had made a foolish marriage and gone to the Antipodes, or that he himself had thrown over the church and w

down and asked, and there was a something in her voice that r

young still, and too handsome," he added, with a little smile, "for it to be right that I should go on l

ink of you as one,

ike me to live

hought of it," she ans

, except as your husband. I thi

r lips. He saw that she trembled. He rose and pulled her gently

?" he

ow what fol

shall live outside t

ou never go

n hour while the parson prays over us. How is it to be? Perhaps you

r eyes and looked a

can be no help to you in your home, but I want nothing more from it than I

to her eyes, but they were downcast, and a twitch came to her lips. He stooped and kissed her forehead, and waited till she spoke again. "You'll be go

an end. Things will go on just the same as they have done. I don't propose to alter anything. We will be married one morning at Haslemere-or Guildford, perhaps; no one will be likely t

ly and looked round the living-room. Then he put his arms slowly round her and drew her to him with qu