Herbert
instantly offered to escort her. Emmeline remained to assist Mrs.
Greville in some travelling arrangements, and Mr. Hamilton employed
himself in some of those numberless little offices which active men take
upon themselves in the business of a departure. Mary shrunk with such
evident reluctance from this arrangement, that for the first time
Herbert doubted.

"You were not wont to shrink thus from accepting me as your companion,"
he said, fixing his large expressive eyes mournfully upon her, and
speaking in a tone of such melancholy sweetness, that Mary hastily
struggled to conceal the tear that started to her eye. "Are our happy
days of childhood indeed thus forgotten?" he continued, gently. "Go with
me, dear Mary; let us in fancy transport ourselves at least for one
hour back to those happy years of early life which will not come again."

The thoughts, the hopes, the joys of her childhood flashed with sudden
power through the heart of Mary as he spoke, and she resisted them not.

"Forgive me, Herbert," she said, hastily rising to prepare; "I have
become a strange and wayward being the last few months; you must bear
with me, for the sake of former days."

Playfully he granted the desired forgiveness, and they departed on their
walk. For some little time they walked in silence. Before they were
aware of it, a gentle ascent conducted them to a spot, not only lovely
in its own richness, but in the extensive view that stretched beneath
them. The wide ocean lay slumbering at their feet; the brilliant rays of
the sun, which it reflected as a mirror, appeared to lull it to rest,
the very waves broke softly on the shore. To the left extended the
snow-white cliffs, throwing in shadow part of the ocean, and bringing
forward their own illumined walls in bold relief against the dark blue
sea. Ships of every size, from the floating castle in the offing to the
tiny pleasure boat, whose white sails shining in the sun caused her to
be distinguished at some distance, skimming along the ocean as a bird of
snowy plumage across the heavens, the merchant vessels, the packets
entering and departing, even the blackened colliers, added interest to
the scene; for at the distance Herbert and Mary stood, no confusion was
heard to disturb the moving picture. On their right the beautiful
country peculiar to Kent spread out before them in graceful undulations
of hill and valley, hop-ground and meadow, wherein the sweet fragrance
of the n