suppose I'd better take a walk," he said; "and perhaps the young
ladies--"

"If you mean my two nieces," said Mrs Greenow, "I'm afraid you'll
find they are engaged. But if I'm not too old to walk with--" The
Captain assured her that she was just of the proper age for a walking
companion, as far as his taste went, and then attempted some apology
for the awkwardness of his expression, at which the three women
laughed heartily. "Never mind, Captain," said Mrs Greenow. "We'll
have our walk all the same, and won't mind those young girls. Come
along." They started, not up towards the mountains, as Kate always
did when she walked in Westmoreland, but mildly, and at a gentle
pace, as beseemed their years, along the road towards Shap. The
Captain politely opened the old gate for the widow, and then
carefully closed it again,--not allowing it to swing, as he would
have done at Yarmouth. Then he tripped up to his place beside her,
suggested his arm, which she declined, and walked on for some paces
in silence. What on earth was he to say to her? He had done his
love-making successfully, and what was he to do next?

"Well, Captain Bellfield," said she. They were walking very slowly,
and he was cutting the weeds by the roadside with his cane. He knew
by her voice that something special was coming, so he left the
weeds and ranged himself close up alongside of her. "Well, Captain
Bellfield,--so I suppose I'm to be good-natured; am I?"

"Arabella, you'll make me the happiest man in the world."

"That's all fudge." She would have said, "all rocks and valleys,"
only he would not have understood her.

"Upon my word, you will."

"I hope I shall make you respectable?"

"Oh, yes; certainly. I quite intend that."

"It is the great thing that you should intend. Of course I am going
to make a fool of myself."

"No, no; don't say that."

"If I don't say it, all my friends will say it for me. It's lucky for
you that I don't much care what people say."

"It is lucky;--I know that I'm lucky. The very first day I saw you I
thought what a happy fellow I was to meet you. Then, of course, I was
only thinking of your beauty."

"Get along with you!"

"Upon my word, yes. Come, Arabella, as we are to be man and wife, you
might as well." At this moment he had got very close to her, and had
recovered something of his usual elasticity; but she would not allow
him even to put his arm round her waist. "Out in the high road!" she
said. "How can