their meeting on the morrow he would again silently reassure her heart by a glance which betokened an unbroken friendship, or an involuntary pressure of her hand which made her heart throb with a strangely sweet pleasure. CHAPTER XIX. MASTER VERE'S CONFESSION. "Thank God for love, though love may hurt and wound, Though set with sharpest thorn its rose may be." --SUSAN COOLIDGE. "This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower, when next we meet." --SHAKESPEARE. "Percival," said Lady Bryn Afon on the last night of their stay at Glyn Melen, as he sat with her in the copse reading aloud, while Primrose was busy within doors directing the waiting-maids as to the packing of their mistresses' possessions previous to their departure on the morrow--"Percival, pardon me for asking so bold a question, but have I done well in suffering you thus to share with me the companionship of my sweet young friend during these happy weeks? I have watched you both not without some secret misgivings; yet, knowing I could trust you, have forborne to interfere with your happiness, content to leave all in the hands of a good Providence, yet reproaching myself at times for having perchance unwisely permitted you both at once to be my companions in this solitary dwelling, where you have of necessity been thrown much together. Forgive me, dear friend, for thus venturing to address you, but Primrose is to me as a dear daughter; and you--for the love and devotion you bestow upon our unhappy family, I can but regard you also with somewhat of a mother's affection!" "I am grateful for the confidence you have placed in me," said the young chaplain earnestly, "and I can but assure you that no word of the love I feel for your most sweet and fair companion has yet passed my lips, or shall pass until she is under her own mother's care, which she tells me will probably not be until a year from now. It is true that in her my soul has seemed verily to find its ideal, and that I can but feel there is betwixt us some sweet unspoken tie, which in myself I know to be the truest love man can offer woman, yet which I dare not yet presume to think upon as an assured treasure. I have wrestled many an hour with myself alone on the mountain-top, that I might by no word or act betray your confidence, or, above all, suffer this earthly love to take away aught from that supreme love and devotion I have but lately sworn to my Master in Heaven. Against His will I dare not seek for myself a bliss for which my soul yearns with deeper longing than I can tell; but can I only keep this earthly love in due subjection, regarding it as a priceless gift to help me the better to serve Him, I can but feel He will perchance look with favour upon us both, and in His good time suffer me to become the unworthy possessor of so fair and lowly-minded a helpmeet."