afraid, for board and lodging I cannot charge you less than L3
3s.,--say L3 a week. My lodgers usually pay a week in advance."

"Agreed," said Kenelm, extracting three sovereigns from his purse. "I
have dined already: I want nothing more this evening; let me detain
you no further. Be kind enough to shut the door after you."

When he was alone, Kenelm seated himself in the recess of the bay
window, against the casement, and looked forth intently. Yes; he was
right: he could see from thence the home of Lily. Not, indeed, more
than a white gleam of the house through the interstices of trees and
shrubs, but the gentle lawn sloping to the brook, with the great
willow at the end dipping its boughs into the water, and shutting out
all view beyond itself by its bower of tender leaves. The young man
bent his face on his hands and mused dreamily: the evening deepened;
the stars came forth; the rays of the moon now peered aslant through
the arching dips of the willow, silvering their way as they stole to
the waves below.

"Shall I bring lights, sir? or do you prefer a lamp or candles?" asked
a voice behind,--the voice of the elderly man's wife. "Do you like
the shutters closed?"

The question startled the dreamer. They seemed mocking his own old
mockings on the romance of love. Lamp or candles, practical lights
for prosaic eyes, and shutters closed against moon and stars!

"Thank you, ma'am, not yet," he said; and rising quietly he placed his
hand on the window-sill, swung himself through the open casement, and
passed slowly along the margin of the rivulet, by a path checkered