'Well, my good friend, it is a very pretty sight,' he said, warming
up to the proceedings. 'But you dance too well--you dance all over
your person--and that's too thorough a way for the present day. I
should say it was exactly how they danced in the time of your poet
Chaucer; but as people don't dance like it now, we must consider.
First I must inquire more about this ball, and then I must see you
again.'

'If it is a great trouble to you, sir, I--'

'O no, no. I will think it over. So far so good.'

The Baron mentioned an evening and an hour when he would be passing
that way again; then mounted his horse and rode away.

On the next occasion, which was just when the sun was changing places
with the moon as an illuminator of Silverthorn Dairy, she found him
at the spot before her, and unencumbered by a horse. The melancholy
that had so weighed him down at their first interview, and had been
perceptible at their second, had quite disappeared. He pressed her
right hand between both his own across the stile.

'My good maiden, Gott bless you!' said he warmly. 'I cannot help
thinking of that morning! I was too much over-shadowed at first to
take in the whole force of it. You do not know all; but your
presence was a miraculous intervention. Now to more cheerful
matters. I have a great deal to tell--that is, if your wish about
the ball be still the same?'

'O yes, sir--if you don't object.'