Face to face with things one is all right; and
yet one never learns not to waste time in dreading them."
They went on in silence up the valley, Maud walking beside him with
all her old lightness. Howard thought he had never seen anything
more beautiful. They were out of the wind now, but could hear it
hiss in the grasses above them.
"What about Cambridge?" said Maud. "I think it will be rather fun.
I haven't wanted to go; but do you know, if someone came to me and
said I might just unpack everything, I should be dreadfully
disappointed!"
"I believe I should be too," said Howard. "My only fear is that I
shall not be interested--I shall be always wanting to get back to
you--and yet how inexplicable that used to seem to me, that Dons
who married should really prefer to steal back home, instead of
living the free and joyous life of the sympathetic and bachelor;
and even now it seems difficult to suppose that other men can feel
as I do about THEIR wives."
"Like the boy in Punch," said Maud, "who couldn't believe that the
two earwigs could care about each other."
A faint music of bells came to them on the wind. "Hark!" said
Howard; "the Sherborne chime! Do you remember when we first heard
that? It gave me a delightful sense of other people being busy when
I was unoccupied. To-day it seems as if it was warning me that I
have got to be busy."
They turned at last and retraced their steps. Presently Howard
said, "There's just one more thing, child, I want to say.
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