The tentative exchange of letters passed into a formal "contract" to correspond,--sudden if not as "unadvised" as the love-vows of Juliet, a parallel which he shyly hinted, and she, with the security of the whole-hearted, boldly recalled.

All the winter and early spring her health forbade a meeting, and it is clear that but for the quiet pressure of his will they never would have met.

But with May came renewed vigour, and she reluctantly consented to a visit.

"He has a way of putting things which I have not, a way of putting aside,--so he came." A few weeks later he spoke.

She at first absolutely refused to entertain the thought; he believed, and was silent.