Then a pleasant chapter, entitled Lovers’ Quarrels, tells us how matters are progressing with the two pairs.  Milverton and Blanche are going on most satisfactorily; but Ellesmere and Mildred are wayward and hard to keep right.  Ellesmere sadly disappointed Mildred by the sordid views he advanced in his essay, and kept advancing in his talk; and like a proud and shy man of middle age when in love, he was ever watching for distant slight indications of how his suit might be received, and rendered fractious by the uncertainty of Mildred’s conduct and bearing.  And probably women have little notion by what slight and hardly thought-of sayings and doings they may have repressed the declaration and the offer which might perhaps have made them happy.  Day by day Dunsfbrd was vexed by the growing estrangement between two persons who were really much attached; and this unhappy state of matters might have ended in a final separation but for the happy incident recorded in the chapter called Rowing down the River Moselle.  The party had rowed down the river, talking as usual of many things:—­

It was just at this point of the conversation that we pulled in nearer to the land, as Walter had made signs that he wished now to get into the boat.  It was a weedy rushy part of the river that we entered.  Fixer saw a rat or some other creature, which he was wild to get at.  Eliesmere excited him to do so, and the dog sprang out of the boat.  In a minute or two Fixer became entangled in the weeds, and seemed to be in danger of sinking.  Ellesmere, without thinking what he was about, made a hasty effort to save the dog, seized hold of him, but lost his own balance and fell out of the boat.  In another moment Mildred gave me the end of her shawl to hold, which she had wound round herself, and sprang out too.  The sensible diplomatist lost no time in throwing his weighty person to the other side of the boat.  The two boatmen did the same.  But for this move, the boat would, in all probability, have capsized, and we should all have been lost.  Mildred was successful in clutching hold of Ellesmere; and Milverton and I managed to haul them close to the boat and to pull them in.  Ellesmere had uot relinquished hold of Fixer.  All this happened, as such accidents do, in almost less time than it takes to describe them.  And now came another dripping creature splashing into the boat; for Master Walter, who can swim like a duck, had plunged in directly he saw the accident, but too late to be of any assistance.

Things are now all right; and Ellesmere next day announces to his friends that Mildred and he are engaged.  Two chapters, on Government and Despotism respectively, give us the last thoughts of the Friends abroad; then we have a pleasant picture of them all in Milverton’s farmyard, under a great sycamore, discoursing cheerfully of country cares.  The closing chapter of the book is on The Need for Tolerance.  It contains a host of thoughts which we should be glad to extract; but we must be content with a wise saying of Milverton’s:—­