make you sick of me long before the four years be over,--my advice
is, that we should let this matter drop."

He now walked up to her and took her hand, and as he did so there
was something in his gait and look and tone of voice that stirred
her heart more sharply than it had yet been stirred. "And even that
would not make you unhappy," he said.

She paused before she replied, leaving her hand in his, for he was
contented to hold it without peculiar pressure. "I will not say
so," she replied. "But, Herbert, I think that you press me too
hard. Is it not enough that I leave you to be the arbiter of my
destiny?"

"I would learn the very truth of your heart," he replied.

"I cannot tell you that truth more plainly. Methinks I have told it
too plainly already. If you wish it, I will hold myself as engaged
to you,--to be married to you when those four years are past. But,
remember, I do not advise it. If you wish it, you shall have back
your troth. And that I think will be the wiser course."

But neither alternative contented Herbert Onslow, and at the time he
did not resolve on either. He had some little present income from
home, some fifty pounds a year or so, and he would be satisfied to
marry on that and on his salary as a clerk; but to this papa and
mamma Heine would not consent;--neither would Isa.

"You are not a saving, close man," she said to him when he boasted
of his economies. "No Englishmen are. You could not live