We can wait,--my uncle is old; his habits preclude the chance of a much longer life; he has already had severe attacks.

We are young, dear Mainwaring: what is a year or two to those who hope ?" Mainwaring's face fell, and a displeasing chill passed through his veins.

Could this young creature, her uncle's petted and trusted darling, she who should be the soother of his infirmities, the prop of his age, the sincerest mourner at his grave, weigh coldly thus the chances of his death, and point at once to the altar and the tomb?
He was saved from the embarrassment of reply by Dalibard's approach.
"More than half an hour absent," said the scholar, in his own language, with a smile; and drawing out his watch, he placed it before their eyes.

"Do you not think that all will miss you?
Do you suppose, Miss Clavering, that your uncle has not ere this asked for his fair niece?
Come, and forestall him." He offered his arm to Lucretia as he spoke.
She hesitated a moment, and then, turning to Mainwaring, held out her hand.

He pressed it, though scarcely with a lover's warmth; and as she walked back to the terrace with Dalibard, the young man struck slowly into the opposite direction, and passing by a gate over a foot-bridge that led from the ha-ha into the park, bent his way towards a lake which gleamed below at some distance, half-concealed by groves of venerable trees rich with the prodigal boughs of summer.