"From the very first moment I ever saw you, Lady Ethelrida, to me you seemed all that was true and beautiful, the embodiment of my ideal of womanhood.

I planned these books then, two days after I dined with you at Glastonbury House; and, if you had refused them, it would have caused me pain." Ethelrida was so moved by some new, sudden and exquisite emotion that she could not reply for a moment.

He watched her with growing and passionate delight, but he said nothing.

He must give her time.
"It is too, too nice of you," she said softly, and there was a little catch in her breath.

"No one has ever thought of anything so exquisite for me before, although, as you saw this morning, every one is so very kind.