There was no such thing as a conveyance to be had, but the Windermere coach would pass in about half an hour, and for this they must wait.  It would take them back to Grasmere sooner than they could get there on foot, in Mary’s exhausted condition.

The tea-tray was brought in presently, and Hammond poured out the tea and waited upon Lady Mary.  It was a reversal of the usual formula but it was very pleasant to Mary to sit with her feet on the low brass fender and be waited upon by her lover.  That fog on the brow of Helvellyn—­that piercing wind—­had chilled her to the bone, and there was unspeakable comfort in the glow and warmth of the fire, in the refreshment of a good cup of tea.

‘Mary, you are my own property now, remember,’ said Hammond, watching her tenderly as she sipped her tea.

She glanced up at him shyly, now and then, with eyes full of innocent wonder.  It was so strange to her, as strange as sweet, to know that he loved her; such a marvellous thing that she had pledged herself to be his wife.

’You are my very own—­mine to guard and cherish, mine to think and work for,’ he went on, ’and you will have to trust me, sweet one, even if the beginning of things is not altogether free from trouble.’

‘I am not afraid of trouble.’

’Bravely spoken!  First and foremost, then, you will have to announce your engagement to Lady Maulevrier.  She will take it ill, no doubt; will do her utmost to persuade you to give me up.  Have you courage and resolution, do you think, to stand against her arguments?  Can you hold to your purpose bravely, and cry, no surrender?’

‘There shall be no surrender,’ answered Mary, ’I promise you that.  No doubt grandmother will be very angry.  But she has never cared for me very much.  It will not hurt her for me to make a bad match, as it would have done in Lesbia’s case.  She has had no day-dreams—­no grand ambition about me!’

’So much the better, my wayside flower!  When you have said all that is sweet and dutiful to her, and have let her know at the same time that you mean to be my wife, come weal come woe, I will see her, and will have my say.  I will not promise her a grand career for my darling:  but I will pledge myself that nothing of that kind which the world calls evil—­no penury, or shabbiness of surroundings—­shall ever touch Mary Haselden after she is Mary Hammond.  I can promise at least so much as that.’

‘It is more than enough,’ said Mary.  ’I have told you that I would gladly share poverty with you.’

’Sweet! it is good of you to say as much, but I would not take you at your word.  You don’t know what poverty is.’

’Do you think I am a coward, or self-indulgent?  You are wrong, Jack.  May I call you Jack, as Maulevrier does?’

‘May you?’

The question evoked such a gush of tenderness that he was fain to kneel beside her chair and kiss the little hand holding the cup, before he considered he had answered properly.