"Yes." The girl looked down shyly, her cheeks becoming pinker, and her
blue eyes shining. She was only nineteen, and she loved him very
dearly.
"Of course I shall have to assist my mother," continued Bernard. "She
has very little money and will have to live with us when we marry. You
won’t mind that, dear; if we keep together there will be enough for us
all."
"Yes, of course." But for the first time a shadow stole across the
girl’s face. She was rather afraid of Mrs. Cameron, who was the
somewhat stern widow of a Wesleyan minister.
Bernard Cameron divined her thoughts. "Mother’s sure to like you,
Doris," he said. "She’s a bit particular, you know. But you are _so
good_. She cannot fail to approve of you. Ours will be a most suitable
match in every way. Mother will be very pleased about it."
The shadow passed away from Doris’s face, and she smiled. Bernard knew
his mother much better than she, therefore he must be right. And her
last misgiving vanishing, she gave herself up to the enjoyment of the
present.
Time passed as they sat there on the pretty hill at Askern, where so
many lovers have sat and walked, plighting their troth and building
castles in the air; and it seemed as if these two, who were so young and
ardent, would never tire of telling their version of the old, old story
of the love of man for woman and woman for man. It was all so new to
them that they would have been both startled and incredulous if any one
had suggested that the same sort of thing had gone on continuously ever
since Adam first saw Eve in the Garden of Eden.
However, everything comes to an end, and the best events always pass the
quickest; and so it happened that, in an incredibly short time, the sun
sank low in the heavens and finally disappeared, leaving a radiance
behind, which was soon swallowed up in twilight and the approaching
shades of night. The girl first became uneasy at the lateness of the
hour.
"We must go home," she said. "Mother will think I am lost. Oh,
Bernard, I did not know it was so late."
"Never mind," said he, "we have been so happy. This has been the
first--the very first of many happy times, darling."
"But I don’t like annoying mother," said Doris penitently. "Oh,
Bernard, let us hurry home!"
"All right, darling."
So they went down the hill and across the fields to the village of Moss,
situated between Askern and Doncaster, where they lived; and as they
walked they talked of the bright and happy future when they would be
together always, helping and encouraging one another along the path of
human life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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