His stars, which were generally very good to him, had not perhaps on this occasion been as good as usual.

No doubt he had to a certain degree become encumbered with Clara Amedroz.

Had not the direct and immediate leap with which she had come into his arms shown him somewhat too plainly that one word of his mouth tending towards matrimony had been regarded by her as being too valuable to be lost?
The fruit that falls easily from the tree, though it is ever the best, is never valued by the gardener.
Let him have well-nigh broken his neck in gathering it, unripe and crude, from the small topmost boughs of the branching tree, and the pippin will be esteemed by him as invaluable.

On that morning, as Captain Aylmer had walked home from church, he had doubted much what would be Clara's answer to him.

Then the pippin was at the end of the dangerous bough.