IT was Mr Palmer’s design to send Frank abroad as soon as he understood the home trade. It was thought it would be an advantage to him to learn something of foreign manufacturing processes. Frank had gladly agreed to go, but he was now rather in the mood for delay. Mr Palmer conjectured a reason for it, and the conjecture was confirmed when, after two or three more visits to Fenmarket, perfectly causeless, so far as business was concerned, Frank asked for the paternal sanction to his engagement with Madge. Consent was willingly given, for Mr Palmer knew the family well; letters passed between him and Mrs Hopgood, and it was arranged that Frank’s visit to Germany should be postponed till the summer. He was now frequently at Fenmarket as Madge’s accepted suitor, and, as the spring advanced, their evenings were mostly spent by themselves out of doors. One afternoon they went for a long walk, and on their return they rested by a stile. Those were the days when Tennyson was beginning to stir the hearts of the young people in England, and the two little green volumes had just become a treasure in the Hopgood household. Mr Palmer, senior, knew them well, and Frank, hearing his father speak so enthusiastically about them, thought Madge would like them, and had presented them to her. He had heard one or two read aloud at home, and had looked at one or two himself, but had gone no further. Madge, her mother, and her sister had read and re-read them. ‘Oh,’ said Madge, ‘for that Vale in Ida. Here in these fens how I long for something that is not level! Oh, for the roar of— “The long brook falling thro’ the clov’n ravine In cataract after cataract to the sea.” Go on with it, Frank.’ ‘I cannot.’ ‘But you know _Œnone_?’ ‘I cannot say I do. I began it—’ ‘Frank, how could you begin it and lay it down unfinished? Besides, those lines are some of the first; you _must_ remember— “Behind the valley topmost Gargarus Stands up and takes the morning.”’ ‘No, I do not recollect, but I will learn them; learn them for your sake.’ ‘I do not want you to learn them for my sake.’ ‘But I shall.’ She had taken off her hat and his hand strayed to her neck. Her head fell on his shoulder and she had forgotten his ignorance of _Œnone_. Presently she awoke from her delicious trance and they moved homewards in silence. Frank was a little uneasy. ‘I do greatly admire Tennyson,’ he said. ‘What do you admire? You have hardly looked at him.’ ‘I saw a very good review of him. I will look that review up, by the way, before I come down again. Mr Maurice was talking about it.’