He saw that what she meant by this picture of their common life was, that no one need expect Catherine Leyburn to be an easy prey; that she wanted to impress on him in her eager way that such lives as her sister's were not to be gathered at a touch, without difficulty, from the branch that bears them.

She was exhorting him to courage--nay he caught more than exhortation--a sort of secret message from her bright, excited looks and incoherent speech--that made his heart leap.

But pride and delicacy forbade him to put his feelings into words.
'You don't hope to persuade me that your sister reckons you among the weak persons of the world ?' he said, laughing, his hand on the gate.
Rose could have blessed him for thus turning the conversation.

What on earth could she have said next?
She stood bantering a little longer, and then ran off with Bob.
Elsmere passed the rest of the morning wandering meditatively over the cloudy fells.

After all he was only where he was before the blessed madness, the upflooding hope, nay, almost certainty, of yesterday.