I don't say that as a mere pretty speech to please you," said he quickly, "but because it is true; and it made me want to see more of you.

But, come, we ought to be going; for we are not half way, and we ought to be in well before sunset." And therewith he took Clara's hand, and led her down the bent.

But Ellen stood thoughtfully looking down for a little, and as I took her hand to follow Dick, she turned round to me and said: "You might tell me a great deal and make many things clear to me, if you would." "Yes," said I, "I am pretty well fit for that,--and for nothing else--an old man like me." She did not notice the bitterness which, whether I liked it or not, was in my voice as I spoke, but went on: "It is not so much for myself; I should be quite content to dream about past times, and if I could not idealise them, yet at least idealise some of the people who lived in them.

But I think sometimes people are too careless of the history of the past--too apt to leave it in the hands of old learned men like Hammond.

Who knows?
Happy as we are, times may alter; we may be bitten with some impulse towards change, and many things may seem too wonderful for us to resist, too exciting not to catch at, if we do not know that they are but phases of what has been before; and withal ruinous, deceitful, and sordid." As we went slowly down toward the boats she said again: "Not for myself alone, dear friend; I shall have children; perhaps before the end a good many;--I hope so.