"M. Lacordaire," she said, "you surprise me greatly; but pray get
up."

"But will madame vouchsafe to give me some small ground for hope?"

"The girls will be here directly, M. Lacordaire; pray get up. I can
talk to you much better if you will stand up, or sit down on one of
these stones."

M. Lacordaire did as he was bid; he got up, wiped the knees of his
pantaloons with his handkerchief, sat down beside her, and then
pressed the handle of his cane to his heart.

"You really have so surprised me that I hardly know how to answer
you," said Mrs. Thompson. "Indeed, I cannot bring myself to imagine
that you are in earnest."

"Ah, madame, do not be so cruel! How can I have lived with you so
long, sat beside you for so many days, without having received your
image into my heart? I am in earnest! Alas! I fear too much in
earnest!" And then he looked at her with all his eyes, and sighed
with all his strength.

Mrs. Thompson's prudence told her that it would be well to settle
the matter, in one way or the other, as soon as possible. Long
periods of love-making were fit for younger people than herself and
her future possible husband. Her object would be to make him
comfortable if she could, and that he should do the same for her, if
that also were possible. As for lookings and sighings and pressings
of the hand, she had gone through all that some twenty years since