Let them ever be ended, even before their presence has been acknowledged.
But Lily Dale had not yet been taught these lessons by her world's experience, and she expected that this sweetest cup of which she had ever drank should go on being sweet--sweeter and still sweeter--as long as she could press it to her lips.

How the dregs had come to mix themselves with the last drops we have already seen; and on that same day,--on the Monday evening,--the bitter task still remained; for Crosbie, as they walked about through the gardens in the evening, found other subjects on which he thought it necessary to give her sundry hints, intended for her edification, which came to her with much of the savour of a lecture.

A girl, when she is thoroughly in love, as surely was the case with Lily, likes to receive hints as to her future life from the man to whom she is devoted; but she would, I think, prefer that such hints should be short, and that the lesson should be implied rather than declared;--that they should, in fact, be hints and not lectures.

Crosbie, who was a man of tact, who understood the world and had been dealing with women for many years, no doubt understood all this as well as we do.

But he had come to entertain a notion that he was an injured man, that he was giving very much more than was to be given to him, and that therefore he was entitled to take liberties which might not fairly be within the reach of another lover.