He had spoken earnestly, and had absolutely forgotten how much remained unsaid, so sure was he of her.
Honora's glance of astonishment and incredulity reminded him. He bent a little nearer, smiling, and said softly: “But we shall be married long before that time, dear, shall we not?”
“It is the first I have heard of it,” Miss Pembroke managed to say with a certain degree of composure, after a moment.
“You surely are not vexed!” he said quickly, beginning to fear that he had assumed too much. “I asked you once in the proper, lover-like fashion, and you refused me, not because you were indifferent to me—you never said that—but because you would not marry and would not love one who denied your Saviour. That obstacle no longer exists. You did not imagine that I had become indifferent to you? That is out of the question. Have I made a mistake?”
“No; it is I who have made a mistake,” she answered frankly. “I was afraid that you had given me up.” She hesitated a little, then, since he still listened, added: “I am very glad that you have not.”
“Thank you!” he said.
They walked slowly up the road between the foaming river and the glowing cliffs, praising the skies and the trees as they went, finding everything beautiful, finding each the other more beautiful than all [pg 687] else. And when the evening began to fade a little, they turned their steps, and went down again with the river, filled with that deep and quiet happiness which leaves nothing to wish for and nothing to tell.
The very next morning a little note was sped from Miss Pembroke to Sister Cecilia with the following mysterious announcement:
“My Novena has succeeded perfectly! I will come very soon and tell you all about it.”
Since the matter is settled, we may as well own at once that when Mr. Schöninger first announced himself a Catholic, Honora had said to her friend and confidant at the convent, “If I do not marry him, I shall never marry any one”; and that the result of this confession was a Novena, in which the young woman had asked that she might find favor in his sight.