'Happy indeed! But who could fail to be happy here? I am much of a day-dreamer, Miss Montgomerie, and often it has seemed to me, in my solitary moments and thoughtful moods, that some mysterious sympathy or bond was linking my existence with that of another, but who that other was I knew not.' 'A strange idea!' 'You will smile at my folly, as you no doubt deem it. So, too, have I thought there was something singularly sweet in the idea, but sweeter still now that I know, the soul that I dreamed of was you.' Mary's hand trembled on his arm, but she made no reply, and stood with half-averted face. 'My lips have been silent,' he resumed, bending over her, as she still further averted her face and looked down; 'yet you must have guessed the cherished hope of my heart, and learned, even from my glance--that I--that--that I love you!' So Mrs. Garth's friendly warnings all came to nothing, and even Hew's existence was forgotten! 'I saw from the first,' said Mary, in a low and agitated voice, 'from the first, that you admired me, but--but, I never thought that----' 'That I loved you?' 'I know not what I thought.' 'Oh, Mary--may I call you so?--I have no words to tell you, Mary, darling, how fondly, how deeply and tenderly I love you!' Her hands were in his now, and her long lashes were cast down, during a little pause that ensued, and he could see her soft bosom heaving under her dress. Then she looked up with a coy, shy smile of great brightness, as she asked: 'Am I the first you have loved--the very first?' 'Fancies I have had--as what lad has not--but I never loved till now, Mary,' he replied, with great tenderness, 'unless it was the love I bore my poor mother, who is now in her grave.' 'I am so confused--so startled, Mr. Falconer.' 'Do say "Cecil," I implore you!' 'Well, then--Cecil.' No need to say more just then, as their lips met, passionately for an instant, and Cecil felt that she was his own. Then Mary shrank back a little, and blushing deeply, said: 'Oh, what would Sir Piers say if he knew of this?' There was something of terror in her tone--alarm, at least, as Cecil thought. 'When I tell him of my love for you----' he began. 'Oh, that you must not--must not do--yet awhile, at least!' she exclaimed earnestly. 'Why, my darling?' 'Don't ask me--do not ask me! Be content that--that----' 'You love me?' 'Oh, Cecil--yes. But your love for me--when did it first begin?' she asked, looking up with the same fond yet shy smile again on her soft face. 'Heaven only knows--when I first saw you, without a doubt,' replied Falconer, drawing her towards him. 'But now tell me, darling----' Ere he could say more, she shrank from him. A step was heard on the gravelled path, Snarley growled and showed his teeth, and Hew appeared close by them, at the mouth of the grotto--Hew, with a very dubious and mingled expression on his face. 'Have you not heard the gong sound for luncheon?' he asked, curtly and sulkily.