BOOK XI.


CHAPTER I.

"THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE NEVER DOES RUN SMOOTH!" MAY IT NOT BE
BECAUSE WHERE THERE ARE NO OBSTACLES, THERE ARE NO TESTS TO THE
TRUTH OF LOVE? WHERE THE COURSE IS SMOOTH, THE STREAM IS CROWDED
WITH PLEASURE-BOATS. WHERE THE WAVE SWELLS, AND THE SHOALS
THREATEN, AND THE SKY LOWERS, THE PLEASURE-BOATS HAVE GONE BACK INTO
HARBOUR. SHIPS FITTED FOR ROUGH WEATHER ARE THOSE BUILT AND STORED
FOR LONG VOYAGE.

I pass over the joyous meeting betwen Waife and Sophy. I pass over
George's account to his fair cousin of the scene he and Hartopp had
witnessed, in which Waife's innocence had been manifested and his reasons
for accepting the penalties of guilt had been explained. The first few
agitated days following Waife's return have rolled away. He is resettled
in the cottage from which he had fled; he refuses, as before, to take up
his abode at Lady Montfort's house. But Sophy has been almost constantly
his companion, and Lady Montfort herself has spent hours with him each
day--sometimes in his rustic parlour, sometimes in the small garden-plot
round his cottage, to which his rambles are confined. George has gone
back to his home and duties at Humberston, promising very soon to revisit
his old friend, and discuss future plans.

The scholar, though with a sharp pang, conceding to Waife that all
attempt publicly to clear his good name at the cost of reversing the
sacrifice he had made must be forborne, could not, however, be induced to
pledge himself to unconditional silence. George felt that there were at