d taken,
he could not honestly say that, if matrimony were to be regarded as
advisable, his friends could have done better.

The strange thing to Howard was the contrast between his own acute and
intolerable nervousness, and the entire and radiant self-possession of
Maud. He had a bad hour on the morning of the wedding-day itself. He
had a sort of hideous fear that he had done selfishly and perversely,
and that it was impossible that Maud could really continue to love him;
that he had sacrificed her youth to his fancy, and his vivid
imagination saw himself being wheeled in a bath-chair along the Parade
of a health-resort, with Maud in melancholy attendance.

But when he saw his child enter the church, and look up to catch his
eye, his fears melted like a vapour on glass; and his love seemed to
him to pour down in a sudden cataract, too strong for a human heart to
hold, to meet the exquisite trustfulness and sweetness of his bride,
who looked as though the gates of heaven were ajar. After that he saw
and heard nothing but Maud. They went off together in the afternoon to
a little house in Dorsetshire by a lonely sea-cove, which Mr. Sandys
had spent many glorious and important hours in securing and arranging.
It was only an hour's journey. If Howard had needed reassuring he had
his desire; for as they drove away from Windlow among the thin cries of
the village children, Howard put his arm round Maud, and said "Well,
child?" upon which she took his other hand in both of her own, and
dropping her head on his shoulder, said, "Utterly and entirely and
absolutely proud and happy and content!" And then they sate in silence.

XXIV

DISCOVERIES

It was a time of wonderful discoveries for Howard, that month spent in
the little house under the cliff and beside the cove. It was a tiny
hamlet with half a dozen fishermen's cottages and two or three larger
houses, holiday-dwellings for rich people; but there was no one living
there, except a family of children with a governess. The house they
were in belonged to an artist, and had a big studio in which they
mostly sate. An elderly woman and her niece were the servants, and the
life was the simplest that could be imagined. Howard felt as if he
would have liked it prolonged for ever. They brought a few books with
them, but did little else except ramble through the long afternoons in
the silent bays. It was warm, bright September weather, still and hazy;
and the sight of the