Clayton found it very difficult to change her determination. But at last he succeeded in doing so. “But only for a week, mind; I will only put it off for a week, Clayton; and I would not do that, only as you say he would rush off at once to Sir Cradock; and I must give you time to take your father at the very best opportunity”. “And when will that be, my sweet prime minister, in your most sage opinion”? “Why, of course, on my dear loveʼs birthday, next week, when all those rejoicings are to be at his brother becoming of age”. The young lady meant no mischief at all, but her lover did not look gracious. “My brother! oh yes, to be sure, my brother! And I dreamed last night that I was the elder. He used to talk about giving me half; but I havenʼt heard much of that lately. As for my majority, as the lawyers are pleased to call it, nobody cares two straws for that. All my life I shall be a minor”. “Yes, somebody cares for it, darling; and more than all the hundreds put together who will shout and hurrah for your brother”. And she looked at him fondly from her heart. What a hot little partisan! The whole of that heart was now with Clayton, and he felt its strength by sympathy. So he lifted her hand to his lips, as a cavalier does in a picture. For the moment all selfish regrets lost their way in the great wide world of love. “And my fealty shall be to you”, he cried, kneeling half in play before her; “you are my knightly fee and fortune, my castle, my lands, and my home”. They had stopped at a point where two forest–paths met, and the bushes fell back a little, and the last of the autumn sunset glanced through the pales of a moss–grown gate, the mark whereby some royalty, or right of chase, was limited. Kneeling there, Clayton Nowell looked so courtly and gentle, with the bowered light of the west half saddening his happy, affectionate countenance, that his newly–betrothed must needs stoop graciously, and kiss his uncovered forehead.