The fact is, I am rather a desultory sort of person, and I have so many interesting occupations that I never know what to do first." "One must always have a little method in one's daily life," returned Malcolm indulgently.

"How would you like me to make you out a list?
You might slip any books you did not want to read." Then Elizabeth thanked him quite gratefully.
"I mean to turn over a new leaf on my thirty-first birthday," she continued serenely.

"Isn't it a great age, Mr.Herrick ?" But Malcolm only smiled in answer.

He was thinking how strange it seemed that she was actually his senior by two years; but he soon grasped the idea that Elizabeth Templeton was one of those women who grow old slowly, and who are sweetest in their ripened prime.
The evening at the vicarage passed very pleasantly, and when Malcolm took his leave he was much surprised at the lateness of the hour, and sorely disturbed when he found Dinah sitting up for him.

But she would not listen to his excuses.
"An hour later does not matter to me, and I was reading and quite forgot the time.