The gossip, wonder, and chagrin such a step would cause rather pleased his fancy; the excitement of trying almost the only thing as yet untried allured him; and deeper than all the desire to forget the past in a better future led him to Christie by the nobler instincts that never wholly die in any soul.  He wanted her as he had wanted many other things in his life, and had little doubt that he could have her for the asking.  Even if love was not abounding, surely his fortune, which hitherto had procured him all he wished (except health and happiness) could buy him a wife, when his friends made better bargains every day.  So, having settled the question, he came home again, and every one said the trip had done him a world of good.

Christie sat in her favorite nook one bright September morning, with the inevitable children hunting hapless crabs in a pool near by.  A book lay on her knee, but she was not reading; her eyes were looking far across the blue waste before her with an eager gaze, and her face was bright with some happy thought.  The sound of approaching steps disturbed her reverie, and, recognizing them, she plunged into the heart of the story, reading as if utterly absorbed, till a shadow fell athwart the page, and the voice she had expected to hear asked blandly: 

“What book now, Miss Devon?”

“‘Jane Eyre,’ sir.”

Mr. Fletcher sat down just where her hat-brim was no screen, pulled off his gloves, and leisurely composed himself for a comfortable lounge.

“What is your opinion of Rochester?” he asked, presently.

“Not a very high one.”

“Then you think Jane was a fool to love and try to make a saint of him, I suppose?”

“I like Jane, but never can forgive her marrying that man, as I haven’t much faith in the saints such sinners make.”

“But don’t you think a man who had only follies to regret might expect a good woman to lend him a hand and make him happy?”

“If he has wasted his life he must take the consequences, and be content with pity and indifference, instead of respect and love.  Many good women do ‘lend a hand,’ as you say, and it is quite Christian and amiable, I ’ve no doubt; but I cannot think it a fair bargain.”

Mr. Fletcher liked to make Christie talk, for in the interest of the subject she forgot herself, and her chief charm for him was her earnestness.  But just then the earnestness did not seem to suit him, and he said, rather sharply: 

“What hard-hearted creatures you women are sometimes!  Now, I fancied you were one of those who wouldn’t leave a poor fellow to his fate, if his salvation lay in your hands.”

“I can’t say what I should do in such a case; but it always seemed to me that a man should have energy enough to save himself, and not expect the ‘weaker vessel,’ as he calls her, to do it for him,” answered Christie, with a conscious look, for Mr. Fletcher’s face made her feel as if something was going to happen.