He hardly knew why he should endeavour to say a word to her before he left Wharton.

And yet he felt that it must be said.

Were he to allow her to be married to this man, without any further previous word between them, it would appear that he had resolved to quarrel with her for ever.

But now, at this very moment of time, as he lay in his bed, as he dressed himself in the morning, as he sauntered about among the new hay-stacks with his pipe in his mouth after breakfast, he came to some conclusion in his mind very much averse to such quarrelling.
He had loved her with all his heart.

It had not been a mere drawing-room love begotten between a couple of waltzes, and fostered by five minutes in a crush.