“Then we can pick up the boys on the road,” said I, for which remark my enchantress, already descending the steps, gave me a look which the ladies behind her would have given their best switches to have seen. We drove off as decorously as if it were Sunday and we were going to church; we industriously pointed out to each other every handsome garden and tasteful residence we passed; we met other people driving, and conversed fluently upon their horses, carriages and dress. But when we reached the edge of the town, and I turned into “Happy Valley,” a road following the depressions and curves of a long, well-wooded valley, in which there was not a single straight line, I turned and looked into my darling’s face. Her eyes met mine, and although they were full of a happiness which I had never seen in them before, they filled with tears, and their dear owner dropped her head on my shoulder. [Illustration: TO SKIP ALL LOVE TALKS IN NOVELS] What we said on that long drive would not interest the reader. I have learned by experience to skip all love talks in novels, no matter how delightful the lovers may be. Recalling now our conversation, it does not seem to have had anything wonderful in it. I will only say, that if I had been happy on the evening before, my happiness now seemed to be sanctified; to be favored with the love and confidence of a simple girl scarcely past her childhood, is to receive a greater honor than court or field can bestow; but even this honor is far surpassed by that which comes to a man when a woman of rare intelligence, tact and knowledge of society and the world, unburdens her heart of all its hopes and fears, and unhesitatingly leaves her destiny to be shaped by his love. Women like Alice Mayton do not thus give themselves unreservedly away, except when their trust is born of knowledge as well as affection, and the realization of all this changed me on that afternoon from whatever I had been, into what I had long hoped I might one day be. But the hours flew rapidly, and I reluctantly turned the horses’ heads homeward. We had left almost the whole of “Happy Valley” behind us, and were approaching residences again. “Now we must be very proper,” said Alice. “Certainly,” I replied, “here’s a good-by to happy nonsense for this afternoon.”