risk all if too premature?"

"There is no almanac for love. With many women love is born the moment
they know they are beloved. All wisdom tells us that a moment once gone
is irrevocable. Were I in your place, I should feel that I approached a
moment that I must not lose. I have said enough; now I shall rejoin Mrs.
Ashleigh."

"Stay--tell me first what Lady Haughton's letter really contains to prompt
the advice with which you so transport, and yet so daunt, me when you
proffer it."

"Not now; later, perhaps,--not now. If you wish to see Lilian alone, she
is by the Old Monk's Well; I saw her seated there as I passed that way to
the house."

"One word more,--only one. Answer this question frankly, for it is one of
honour. Do you still believe that my suit to her daughter would not be
disapproved of by Mrs. Ashleigh?"

"At this moment I am sure it would not; a week hence I might not give you
the same answer."

So she passed on with her quick but measured tread, back through the shady
walk, on to the open lawn, till the last glimpse of her pale gray robe
disappeared under the boughs of the cedar-tree. Then, with a start, I
broke the irresolute, tremulous suspense in which I had vainly endeavoured
to analyze my own mind, solve my own doubts, concentrate my own will, and
went the opposite way, skirting the circle of that haunted ground,--as
now, on one side its lofty terrace, the houses of the neighbouring city