This evening, however, the family were away and she received him
alone, trying so hard to come up to his capacity, talking so
intelligibly of books she had been reading and looking so lovely in
her winter crimson dress, besides being so sweetly affectionate and
confiding, that for once since his engagement Arthur was more than
content, and returned her modest caresses with a warmth he had not
felt before. He did love her, he said to himself, or, at least, he was
learning to love her very much; and when at last he took his leave,
and she went with him to the door, there was an unwonted tenderness in
his manner as he pushed her gently back, for the first snow of the
season was falling and the large flakes dropped upon her golden hair,
from which he brushed them carefully away.
"I cannot let my darling take cold," he said, and Lucy felt a strange
thrill of joy, for never before had he called her his darling, and
sometimes she had thought that the love she received was not as great
as the love she gave.
But she did not think so now, and in an ecstasy of joy she stood in
the deep recess of the bay window, watching him as he went away
through the moonlight and the feathery cloud of snow, wondering why,
when she was so happy, there could cling to her a haunted presentiment
that she and Arthur would never meet again just as they had parted.
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