and so on. You know that. I don't want to make myself out better than I am. But when we are married, I mean to turn over a new leaf. You'll help me."
Which was true in a more literal sense than he wished her to understand.
They wandered away from the light, through the shadowy garden, where the roses, touched with dew, seemed to breathe their benisons on her as she slowly passed, his arm around her, his golden beard pressed against her dark hair when he bent over her. King Charles's Wain was riven as with bolts of gold into the blue heaven above them; a little nearer the horizon of the hills a great planet had arisen; the sky was light, though there was no moon. How happy she was—or fancied that she was—during that short half-hour! She had put away doubt; she had forgotten everything till the stable clock struck eleven, and the sound of wheels upon the carriage drive told that the first guests had departed.
"I had no idea it was so late!" cried Elizabeth, aghast. "We must go in, or they will all be gone to bed."
But the rector was still there, when they entered the drawing-room, and greeted her with his benevolent smile. The blood suffused her cheek; she looked beautiful in her happiness at that moment. With the simple directness which characterized her, she went up to him and placed her hand in his. It was needless for her to speak: he understood her.
"Good night to you, my dear young lady," he said in a low voice. "May this prove to be a good night to you in your life! And may the peace of God be yours!"
