Divided as the party were between up-stairs and down-stairs, and in the absence of Charles"s shrewd observation, Philip and Laura had more opportunity of intercourse than usual, and now that his departure would put an end to suspicion, they ventured on more openly seeking each other. It never could be the perfect freedom that they had enjoyed before the avowal of their sentiments, but they had many brief conversations, giving Laura feverish, but exquisite, delight at each renewal of his rare expressions of tenderness.

"What are you going to do to-day?" he asked, on the last morning before he was to leave Hollywell. "I must see you alone before I go."

She looked down, and he kept his eyes fixed on her rather sternly, for he had never before made a clandestine appointment, and he did not like feeling ashamed of it. At last she said,--

"I go to East-hill School this afternoon. I shall come away at half-past three."

Mary Ross was still absent; her six nephews and nieces having taken advantage of her visit to have the measles, not like reasonable children, all at once, so as to be one trouble, but one after the other, so as to keep Aunt Mary with them as long as possible; and Mr. Ross did not know what would have become of the female department of his parish but for Laura, who worked at school-keeping indefatigably.

Laura had some difficulty in shaking off Charlotte"s company this afternoon, and was obliged to make the most of the probability of rain, and the dreadful dirt of the roads. Indeed, she represented it as so formidable, that Mrs. Edmonstone, who had hardly time to look out of window, much less to go out of doors, strongly advised her to stay at home herself; and Charlotte grew all the more eager for the fun.

Luckily, however, for Laura, Dr. Mayerne came in, laughing at the reports of the weather; and as he was wanted to prescribe for a poor old man in an opposite direction, he took Charlotte with him to show the way, and she was much better pleased to have him for a companion than the grave Laura.

Philip, in the meantime, had walked all the way to Broadstone, timing his return exactly, that he might meet Laura as she came out of the school, and feel as if it had been by chance. It was a gray, misty November day, and the leaves of the elm-trees came floating round them, yellow and damp.

"You have had a wet walk," said Laura, as they met.

"It is not quite raining," he answered; and they proceeded for some minutes in silence, until he said,--"It is time we should come to an understanding."

She looked at him in alarm, and his voice was immediately gentler; indeed, at times it was almost inaudible from his strong emotion. "I believe that no affection has ever been stronger or truer than ours."

"Has been!" repeated Laura, in a wondering, bewildered voice.

"And is, if you are satisfied to leave things as they are."

"I must be, if you are."

"I will not say I am satisfied with what must be, as I am situated; but I felt it due to you to set the true state of the case before you. Few would venture their love as I do mine with you, bound in reality, though not formally, with no promise sought or given; yet I am not more a.s.sured that I stand here than I am that our love is for ever."

"I am sure it is!" she repeated fervently. "O Philip, there never was a time I did not love you: and since that day on Ashen Down, I have loved you with my whole heart. I am sometimes afraid it has left no proper room for the rest, when I find how much more I think of your going away than of poor Charles."

"Yes," he said, "you have understood me as none but you would have done, through coldness and reserve, apparently, even towards yourself, and when to others I have seemed grave and severe beyond my years. You have never doubted, you have recognized the warmth within; you have trusted your happiness to me, and it shall be safe in my keeping, for, Laura, it is all mine."

"There is only one thing," said Laura, timidly; "would it not be better if mamma knew?"

"Laura, I have considered that, but remember you are not bound; I have never asked you to bind yourself. You might marry to-morrow, and I should have no right to complain. There is nothing to prevent you."

She exclaimed, as if with pain.

"True," he answered; "you could not, and that certainty suffices me. I ask no more without your parents" consent; but it would be giving them and you useless distress and perplexity to ask it now. They would object to my poverty, and we should gain nothing; for I would never be so selfish as to wish to expose you to such a life as that of the wife of a poor officer; and an open engagement could not add to our confidence in each other. We must be content to wait for my promotion. By that time"--he smiled gravely--"our attachment will have lasted so many years as to give it a claim to respect."

"It is no new thing."

"No newer than our lives; but remember, my Laura, that you are but twenty."

"You have made me feel much older," sighed Laura, "not that I would be a thoughtless child again. That cannot last long, not even for poor little Amy"

"No one would wish to part with the deeper feelings of elder years to regain the carelessness of childhood, even to be exempted from the suffering that has brought them."

"No, indeed."

"For instance, these two years have scarcely been a time of great happiness to you."

"Sometimes," whispered Laura, "sometimes beyond all words, but often dreary and oppressive."

"Heaven knows how unwillingly I have rendered it so. Rather than dim the brightness of your life, I would have repressed my own sentiments for ever."

"But, then, where would have been my brightness?"

"I would, I say, but for a peril to you. I see my fears were unfounded.

You were safe; but in my desire to guard you from what has come on poor Amy, my feelings, though not wont to overpower me, carried me further than I intended."

"Did they?"

"Do not suppose I regret it. No, no, Laura; those were the most precious moments in my life, when I drew from you those words and looks which have been blessed in remembrance ever since; and doubly, knowing, as I do, that you also prize that day."

"Yes--yes;--"

"In the midst of much that was adverse, and with a necessity for a trust and self-control of which scarce a woman but yourself would have been capable, you have endured n.o.bly--"

"I could bear anything, if you were not going so far away,"

"You will bear that too, Laura, and bravely. It will not be for ever."

"How long do you think?"

"I cannot tell. Several years may pa.s.s before I have my promotion. It may be that I shall not see that cheek in its fresh bloom again, but I shall find the same Laura that I left, the same in love, and strength, and trust."

"Ah; I shall grow faded and gray, and you will be a sun-burnt old soldier," said Laura, smiling, and looking, half sadly, half proudly, up to his n.o.ble features; "but hearts don"t change like faces!"

After they came near the house, they walked up and down the lane for a long time, for Philip avoided a less public path, in order to keep up his delusion that he was doing nothing in an underhand way. It grew dark, and the fog thickened, straightening Laura"s auburn ringlets, and hanging in dew-drops on Philip"s rough coat, but little recked they; it was such an hour as they had never enjoyed before. Philip had never so laid himself open, or a.s.sured her so earnestly of the force of his affection; and her thrills of ecstasy overcame the desolate expectation of his departure, and made her sensible of strength to bear seven, ten, twenty years of loneliness and apparent neglect. She knew him, and he would never fail her.

Yet, when at last they went in-doors, and Amy followed her to her room, wondering to find her so wet, and so late, who could have seen the two sisters without reading greater peace and serenity in the face of the younger.

Philip felt an elder brother"s interest for poor little Amy. He did not see much of her; but he compa.s.sionated her as a victim to her mother"s imprudence, hoping she would soon be weaned from her attachment. He thought her a good, patient little thing, so soft and gentle as probably not to have the strength and depth that would make the love incurable; and the better he liked her, the more unfit he thought her for Guy. It would have been uniting a dove and a tiger; and his only fear was, that when he was no longer at hand, Mr. Edmonstone"s weak good-nature might be prevailed on to sacrifice her. He did his best for her protection, by making his uncle express a resolution never to admit Guy into his family again, unless the accusation of gambling was completely disproved.

The last morning came, and Philip went to take leave of Charles. Poor Charles was feebler by this time, and too much subdued by pain and languor to receive him as at first, but the spirit was the same; and when Philip wished him good-bye, saying he hoped soon to hear he was better, he returned for answer,

"Good-bye, Philip, I hope soon to hear you are better. I had rather have my hip than your mind."

He was in no condition to be answered, and Philip repeated his good-bye, little thinking how they were to meet again.

The others were a.s.sembled in the hall. His aunt"s eyes were full of tears, for she loved him dearly, her brother"s only son, early left motherless, whom she had regarded like her own child, and who had so n.o.bly fulfilled all the fondest hopes. All his overbearing ways and uncalled-for interference were forgotten, and her voice gave way as she embraced him, saying,

"G.o.d bless you, Philip, wherever you may be. We shall miss you very much!"

Little Amy"s hand was put into his, and he squeezed it kindly; but she could hardly speak her "good-bye," for the tears that came, because she was grieved not to feel more sorry that her highly-esteemed cousin, so kind and condescending to her, was going away for so very long a time.

"Good-bye, Philip," said Charlotte; "I shall be quite grown up by the time you come home."