‘These are really very pretty grounds,’ he said at last.  ’I am sure I shall enjoy myself immensely here.’  The remark appeared to him to be of doubtful taste, and he hastened to add, ’That is to say, if I have completely made it up with my pretty cousin.’

‘But you have not seen the place yet,’ she said, speaking still with a certain tremor in her voice.  ’You haven’t even seen the gardens.  Come, and I’ll show them to you.’

Hubert would have preferred to walk with her through these ornamental swards; and he liked the espalier apple-trees with which the garden was divided better than the glare and heat of the greenhouses into which she took him.

‘Do you care for flowers?’

‘Not very much.’

‘These are all my flowers,’ she said, pointing to many rows of flower-pots.  ’Those are Julia’s.  You see I run a line of thread around mine, so that there shall be no mistake.  She is not nearly so careful as I am, and it isn’t nice to find that the plants you have been tending for weeks have been spoilt by over-watering.  I don’t say she doesn’t love them, but she forgets them....  Just look at those; they are devoured by insects.  They want to be taken out and given a thorough cleansing.  Even then I doubt if they would come out right,—­a plant never forgives you; it is just like a human being.’

‘And doesn’t a human being ever forgive?’

‘Oh, I didn’t mean that!’ she said, blushing; ’but sometimes I could cry over the poor plants which she neglects.  I daresay you will think me very ridiculous, but I do cry sometimes, and sometimes I cannot resist taking them out on the sly, and giving them a thoroughly good syringing,—­only you must not tell her; we have agreed not to touch each other’s flowers.  But I cannot bear to see the poor things dying.  How do we know that they do not suffer?’

‘I don’t think it probable.’

‘But we don’t know for certain,’ she said, fixing her great eyes on him.  ‘Do we?’

‘We know nothing for certain,’ he answered; and then he said, ’You and Mrs. Bentley have lived a long time together?’

’No; not very long.  About a couple of years.  I was about thirteen when I came to Ashwood.  I am now eighteen.  Mrs. Bentley is a sort of connection.  She is very poor—­that is why Mr. Burnett asked her to come and live here; besides, as I grew up I wanted a companion.  She has been very good to me.  We have been very happy together—­at least, as happy as one may be; for I don’t think that any one is ever very happy.  Have you been very happy?’

‘I have not always been happy.  But tell me more about Mrs. Bentley.’

’There is little more to tell.  I naturally love her very much.  She nursed me when I was ill—­and I’m often ill; she taught me all I know; she cheered me when I was sad—­when I thought my heart would break; when everybody else seemed unkind she was kind.  Besides, I could not remain here without her.’  Emily lowered her eyes, and the conversation seemed to pause.