'Say, my love, that no hours can be sweeter than those so employed, saving, shall I say, those of which we speak; but would not that be ungrateful? We cannot go back again except in thought; we cannot retread the steps we have trodden years ago with the same objects we then had in view; but that is no reason why we should encourage bitterness in our souls, unless we have some bitter accusations of conscience to afflict us. I do not remember even the building of this Tower with any regret. Here it stands; the object of its erection was one of regard, dearest Ellen, for thyself; but if thou art not more esteemed by me than the Tower, or the domain around it, then should I deeply regret, perhaps, the surrender of our right and title to the estate.' 'I thank thee, dearest--I thank thee; and yet thou canst not quite feel as I may do the vivid recollections of a father's love. I think of him who loved me with a tenderness which seemed to be the deeper because of my mother's early loss. Ah! Latimer, he was as a father and a mother unto me!' 'But he can be no longer such, dearest Ellen, and neither art thou so situated as to require it. The wind was tempered to the shorn lamb.' 'And so is it now; and I do not complain. I do but think; and, as we learn to part with childish trifles without regret as we grow in years, so, dearest husband, must we learn to part with things to which our affections become more attached, inasmuch as they are more powerful objects of attraction.' 'Yes, Ellen, and the more submissively to the Divine will we school our hearts in the course of our journey, the less those pangs of parting afflict us, and the sweeter are our hopes of rest. The mansion itself, which held its lord, is gone; the Tower alone remains. It has lasted until thy father's generation and name are gone, and, in the lapse of a few years more, even the memory of ourselves, and of all we have seen and known here, must pass away.' 'But thou hast not forgotten the stipulation that, as long as the Tower can stand, it shall be preserved.' 'No, our friend Ralphe Goodynge has guaranteed that thou shalt have full right and title, as long as he holds the estate, to a resident, rent-free therein, whomsoever thou mayst appoint, and that he will pay a certain monthly dole unto any person or persons inhabiting the spot, to keep the rooms and furniture in cleanly order for thyself or for thy friends, during the term of thy natural life. 'He binds himself, moreover, to keep the said Tower an repair during his possession of the estate, and that as long as the name of Latimer can be remembered in Ipswich, it shall be designated "_Latimer's Tower_." So you see, dearest, we shall still have a name and a possession on the banks of the Orwell.'