Elizabeth's heart beat and her breath came short. That was what she had never thought of. Like many another woman, what he was to her, she knew well; what she might be to him, it had never entered her head to think. It seemed almost a new and superfluous addition to her joy, yet not superfluous from that time forth for ever. Once known, it was too precious a thought to be again untasted. She hung her head over it; she stepped all unwittingly on rocks and short grass and wet places and dry, wherever she was led. It made her heart beat thick to think she could be so valued. How was it possible! How she wished — how keenly — that she could have been of the solid purity of silver or gold, to answer the value put upon her. But instead of that — what a far-off difference! Winthrop could not know how great, or he would never have said that, or felt it; nor could he. What about her could possibly have attracted it?
She had not much leisure to ponder the question, for her attention was called off to answer present demands. And there was another subject for pondering — Winthrop did not seem like the same person she had known under the same name, he was so much more free and pleasant and bright to talk than he had ever been to her before, or in her observation, to anybody. He talked to a very silent listener, albeit she lost never a word nor a tone. She wondered at him and at everything, and stepped along wondering, with a heart too full to speak, almost too full to hide its agitation.
They were nearing home, they had got quit of the woodway road, and were in a cleared field, grown with tall cedars, which skirted the river. Half way across it, Elizabeth's foot paused, and came to a full stop. What was the matter?
Elizabeth faced round a little, as if addressing her judge, though she spoke without lifting her eyes.
"Mr. Landholm — do you know that I am full of faults?"
"Yes."
"And aren't you afraid of them?"
"No, — not at all," he said, smiling, Elizabeth knew. But she answered very gravely,
"I am."
"Which is the best reason in the world why I should not be. It is written 'Blessed is the man that feareth always.'"