"Oh, there is nothing the matter with me; but I am not quite strong for walking. I am out of practice; and my boots are not quite of the right sort." "They don't hurt you, I hope." "Oh, no; they don't actually hurt me. They'll do very well for to-day." And then there was a short pause, and they got on the green grass which runs away into the chase in front of the parsonage windows. I wonder whether wickets are ever standing there now on the summer afternoons! They were soon as much alone--or nearly so--as lovers might wish to be; quite enough so for Caroline. Some curious eyes were still peeping, no doubt, to see how the great lawyer looked when he was walking with the girl of his heart; to see how the rich miser's granddaughter looked when she was walking with the man of her heart. And perhaps some voices were whispering that she had changed her lover; for in these rural seclusions everything is known by everybody. But neither the peepers nor the whisperers interfered with the contentment of the fortunate pair. "I hope you are happy, Caroline?" said Sir Henry, as he gently squeezed the hand that was so gently laid upon his arm. "Happy! oh yes--I am happy. I don't believe you know in a great deal of very ecstatic happiness. I never did." "But I hope you are rationally happy--not discontented--at any rate, not regretful? I hope you believe that I shall do my best, my very best, to make you happy?" "Oh, yes; I quite believe that. We must each think of the other's comfort. After all, that I take it is the great thing in married life." "I don't expect you to be passionately in love with me--not as yet, Caroline." "No. Let neither of us expect that, Sir Henry. Passionate love, I take it, rarely lasts long, and is very troublesome while it does last. Mutual esteem is very much more valuable." "But, Caroline, I would have you believe in my love." "Oh, yes; I do believe in it. Why else should you wish to marry me? I think too well of myself to feel it strange that you should love me. But love with you, and with me also for the future, will be subordinate to other passions." Sir Henry did not altogether like that reference to the past which was conveyed in the word future; but, however, he bore it without wincing. "You know so thoroughly the history of the last three years," she continued, "that it would be impossible for me to deceive you if I could. But, if I know myself, under no circumstances would I have done so. I have loved once, and no good has come of it. It was contrary to my nature to do so--to love in that mad passionate self-sacrificing manner. But yet I did. I think I may say with certainty that I never shall be so foolish again." "You have suffered lately, Caroline; and as the sore still smarts, you hardly yet know what happiness may be in store for you." "Yes; I have suffered," and he felt from the touch on his arm that her whole body shuddered.