They speedily came to an agreement that he should be in the church-porch
at ten minutes to eight on the following morning, awaiting her; and that,
immediately after the conclusion of the service which would make them
one, Nicholas should set out on his long-deferred educational tour,
towards the cost of which she was resolving to bring a substantial
subscription with her to church. Then, slipping from him, she went
indoors by the way she had come, and Nicholas bent his steps homewards.



CHAPTER II


Instead of leaving the spot by the gate, he flung himself over the fence,
and pursued a direction towards the river under the trees. And it was
now, in his lonely progress, that he showed for the first time outwardly
that he was not altogether unworthy of her. He wore long water-boots
reaching above his knees, and, instead of making a circuit to find a
bridge by which he might cross the Froom--the river aforesaid--he made
straight for the point whence proceeded the low roar that was at this
hour the only evidence of the stream's existence. He speedily stood on
the verge of the waterfall which caused the noise, and stepping into the
water at the top of the fall, waded through with the sure tread of one
who knew every inch of his footing, even though the canopy of trees
rendered the darkness almost absolute, and a false step would have
precipitated him into the pool beneath. Soon reaching the boundary of
the grounds, he continued in the same direct line to traverse the
alluvial valley, full of brooks and tributaries to the main stream--in
former times quite impassable, and impassable in winter now. Sometimes
he would cross a deep gully on a plank not wider than the hand; at