An hour or more passed in this way.  Fraeulein Mueller was charmed at hearing some of her favourite poems, asking now for this little bit, and anon for another, and expatiating upon the merits of German poets in general, and Heine in particular, in the pauses of the lecture.  She was quite carried away by her delight in the poet, and was so entirely uplifted to the ideal world that, when a footman came with a message from Lady Maulevrier requesting her presence, she tripped gaily off at once, without a thought of danger in leaving those two together on the lawn.  She had been a faithful watch-dog up to this point; but she was now lulled into a false sense of security by the idea that the time of peril was all but ended.

So she left them; but could she have looked hack two minutes afterwards she would have perceived the unwisdom of that act.

No sooner had the Fraeulein turned the corner of the shrubbery than Hammond laid aside his book and drew nearer Lesbia, who sat looking downward, with her eyes upon the delicate piece of fancy work which had occupied her fingers all the morning.

’Lesbia, this is my last day at Fellside, and you and I may never have a minute alone together again while I am here.  Will you come for a little walk with me on the Fell?  There is something I must say to you before I go.’

Lesbia’s delicate cheek grew a shade more pale.  Instinct told her what was coming, though never mortal man had spoken to her of love.  Nor until now had Mr. Hammond ever addressed her by her Christian name without the ceremonious prefix.  There was a deeper tone in his voice, a graver look in his eyes, than she had ever noticed before.

She rose, and took up her sunshade, and went with him meekly through the cultivated shrubbery of ornamental timber to the rougher pathway that wound through a copse of Scotch fir, which formed the outer boundary of Lady Maulevrier’s domain.  Beyond the fir trees rose the grassy slope of the hill, on the brow of which sheep were feeding.  Deep down in the hollow below the lawns and shrubberries of Fellside the placid bosom of the lake shone like an emerald floor in the sunlight, reflecting the verdure of the hill, and the white sheep dotted about here and there.

There was not a breath in the air around them as those two sauntered slowly side by side in the pine wood, not a cloud in the dazzling blue sky above; and for a little time they too were silent, as if bound by a spell which neither dared to break.  Then at last Hammond spoke.

‘Lesbia, you know that I love you,’ he began, in his low, grave voice, tremulous with feeling.  ’No words I can say to-day can tell you of my love more plainly than my heart has been telling you in every hour of this happy, happy time that you and I have spent together.  I love you as I never hoped to love, fervently, completely, believing that the perfection of earthly bliss will be mine if I can but win you.  Dearest, is there such a sweet hope for me; are you indeed my own, as I am yours, heart and soul, and mind and being, till the last throb of life in this poor clay?’