"Unutterably happy."
"Then it is yours."
"You love me—in spite of the difference between our ages?"
"Yes, Sir Oswald, I honour and love you with all my heart," answered Honoria Milford. "Whom have I seen so worthy of a woman's affection? From the first hour in which some guardian angel threw me across your pathway, what have I seen in you but nobility of soul and generosity of heart? Is it strange, therefore, if my gratitude has ripened into love?"
"Honoria," murmured Sir Oswald, bending over the drooping head, and pressing his lips gently on the pure brow—"Honoria, you have made me too happy. I can scarcely believe that this happiness is not some dream, which will melt away presently, and leave me alone and desolate—the fool of my own fancy."
He led Honoria back towards the house. Even in this moment of supreme happiness he was obliged to remember Miss Beaumont, who would, no doubt, be lurking somewhere on the watch for her pupil.
"Then you will give up all thought of a professional career, Honoria?" said the baronet, as they walked slowly back.
"I will obey you in everything."
"My dearest girl—and when you leave this house, you will leave it as
Lady Eversleigh."
Miss Beaumont was waiting in the drawing-room, and was evidently somewhat astonished by the duration of the interview between Sir Oswald and her pupil.