The solemnity of that meeting in the field still hung about him, and gave to his present feelings a manliness and a truth of purpose which were too generally wanting to them.

If only those feelings would last! But now he talked to Mrs Dale about her daughter, and about their future prospects, in a tone which he could not have used had not his mind for the time been true to her.

He had never spoken so freely to Lily's mother, and at no time had Mrs Dale felt for him so much of a mother's love.

He apologised for the necessity of some delay, arguing that he could not endure to see his young wife without the comfort of a home of her own, and that he was now, as he always had been, afraid of incurring debt.

Mrs Dale disliked waiting engagements,--as do all mothers,--but she could not answer unkindly to such pleading as this.
"Lily is so very young," she said, "that she may well wait for a year or so." "For seven years," said Lily, jumping up and whispering into her mother's ear.