It would make her father so very, very happy, she said, for he had often regretted my absence, and had never seemed so cheerful since I had been away. Often, too, she told me, he had blamed himself for advising me to accept the post I bad taken, and which he declared was unworthy of my merits; and she added many another little trait from which she herself had divined, and which led me to believe also, that Monsieur de Villardin had long been anxious for my return. Neither Laura nor myself, however, did anything to hasten our walk to the château, from which we were nearly a mile distant. The scene was so sweet and calm, and the evening so warm and fine, that it might well invite us to tarry: but there was a sensation of delight in our first conversation after so long a separation, which we were unwilling to cut short, and a feeling of happiness, too, in the almost unwitnessed enjoyment of each other's society, which, as it might be long ere the same pleasure was renewed, we were both glad to prolong. At length, however, the purple hues that began to spread over the sky warned us that we must bend our steps homeward; and Lise, though she had no small touch of romance in her nature, declared that Monsieur would be anxious if Mademoiselle did not return. Laura rose, and, leaning on my arm, took the way along the river, whose glossy bosom was reflecting, bright but softened, the trees, and the banks, and the changing sky above. Our eyes now met, and now rested on the waters; our conversation flew from subject to subject, like a butterfly in a flower-garden,--now poured on uninterrupted, now dropped altogether, and gave place to thought. She told me again and again how glad my return would make every one in the château, leaving me to include herself in the number; and I thought how beautiful she had grown, and remembered how dear and amiable she always had been. At length, the grey turrets and slated roofs of the château rose over the nearest trees; and one of the sweetest and the happiest walks ended that ever I enjoyed through life. CHAPTER XXXII.