I am the feeblest of managers; I live from hand to mouth; but I
am not going to submerge you either. If you won't be the girl-
bride, you are not to be the professional sunbeam either. You are
to be just yourself, the one real, sweet, and perfect thing in the
world for me. Chaire kecharitoenae--do you know what that means? It
was the angel's opinion long ago of a very simple mortal. We shall
affect each other, sure enough, as the days go on. Why what you have
done for me already, I dare hardly think--you have made a man out
of a machine--but we won't go about trying to revise each other;
that will take care of itself. I only want you as you are--the best
thing in the world."
The last morning at Lydstone they were very silent; they took one
long walk together, visiting all the places where they had sate and
lingered. Then in the afternoon they drove away. The old
maidservant gave them, with almost tearful apologies, two little
ill-tied posies of flowers, and Maud kissed her, thanked her, made
her promise to write. As they drove away Maud waved her hand to the
little cove--"Good-bye, Paradise!" she said.
"No," said Howard, "don't say that; the swallow doesn't make the
summer; and I am carrying the summer away with me."
XXVII
THE NEW LIFE
The installation at Windlow seemed as natural and obvious as any
other of the wonderful steps of Howard's new life. The only thing
which bothered him was the incursions of callers, to which his
marriage seemed to have rendered the house liable.
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