their minds now? I shall tell them that at their time of
life a change of any kind is very unwise and bad for them. Then there
is Grandmama Bonner. She can hurt us really, if she pleases. Oh, my dear
Evan! if you had only been a curate! Why isn't your name Parsley? Then
my Grandmama the Countess of Elburne. Well, we have a Countess on our
side, haven't we? And that reminds me, Evan, if we're to be happy and
succeed, you must promise one thing: you will not tell the Countess,
your sister. Don't confide this to her. Will you promise?'

Evan assured her he was not in the habit of pouring secrets into any
bosom, the Countess's as little as another's.

'Very well, then, Evan, it's unpleasant while it lasts, but we shall
gain the day. Uncle Melville will give you an appointment, and then?'

'Yes, Rose,' he said, 'I will do this, though I don't think you can know
what I shall have to endure-not in confessing what I am, but in feeling
that I have brought you to my level.'

'Does it not raise me?' she cried.

He shook his head.

'But in reality, Evan--apart from mere appearances--in reality it does!
it does!'

'Men will not think so, Rose, nor can I. Oh, my Rose! how different you
make me. Up to this hour I have been so weak! torn two ways! You give me
double strength.'

Then these lovers talked of distant days--compared their feelings on
this and that occasion with mutual wonder and delight. Then the old
hours lived anew. And--did you really think that, Evan? And--Oh, Rose!
was that your dream? And the meaning of that by-gone look: was it what
they fancied? And such and such a tone of voice; would it bear
the wished interpretation? Thus does Love avenge himself on the
unsatisfactory Past and call out its essence.

Could Evan do less than adore her? She knew all, and she loved him!
Since he was too shy to allude more than once to his letter, it was
natural that he should not ask her how she came to know, and how much
the 'all' that she knew comprised. In his letter he had told all; the
condition of his parents, and his own. Honestly, now, what with his
dazzled state of mind, his deep inward happiness, and love's endless
delusions, he abstained from touching the subject further. Honestly,
therefore, as far as a lover can be honest.

So they toyed, and then Rose, setting her fingers loose, whispered: 'Are
you ready?' And Evan nodded; and Rose, to make him think light of the
matter in hand, laughed: 'Pluck not quite up