'Advise me, Robert,' said she, imploringly.
'In what can I advise you, if your own heart does not?'
'We are both so miserably poor.'
'And your new admirer is so rich?'
They were drifting among shoals again, so Ellinor made no reply.
'I suppose he loves you? To judge by my own heart, Ellinor, I don't wonder at it—but if so, why does he not at once come to the point and end his dangling? Why delay, and why conceal?'
'Do not let us quarrel, Robert,' said the girl, gently and sweetly, with her soft hazel eyes full of unshed tears; 'we have always been such chums—such friends. Some one is coming—kiss me once more—and kiss me quickly!'
A light step was heard on the ground near the garden gate, and the welcoming bark of Jack announced it was that of Mary returning.
The mutual kiss was swiftly given and taken; but to neither did it seem like the kisses of old.
Robert Wodrow felt that it sealed only a truce between him and Ellinor Wellwood; that neither were happy now, and that her heart was drifting away from him. Their farewell seemed to be like the summary of Lord Lytton's advice,