For he, falling back, ranged alongside of the Doctor, and, managing to draw him behind the others, turned to him and said suddenly,-- "My dear old friend! my good old tutor!" The Doctor stopped short, pulled out a pair of spectacles, wiped them, put them on, and looked at Sam through them for nearly a minute, and then said: "My dear boy, you don't mean to say----" "I do, Doctor .-- Last night .-- And, oh! if you could only tell, how happy I am at this moment! If you could guess at it!----" "Pooh, pooh!" said the Doctor; "I am not so old as that, my dear boy.
Why, I am a marrying man myself.

Sam, I am so very, very glad! You have won her, and now wear her, like a pearl beyond all price.

I think that she is worthy of you: more than that she could not be." They shook hands, and soon Sam was at her side again, toiling up the steep ascent.

They soon distanced the others, and went forwards by themselves.
There was such a rise in the ground seawards, that the broad ocean was invisible till they were half way up the grassy down.

Then right and left they began to see the nether firmament, stretching away infinitely.