(Having written as an aged person, he often found difficulty in remembering suddenly that he was two and twenty.) "But you are still a very young man." "It seems long ago to me," he said with a sigh.
"Was she beautiful ?" "She was beautiful to my eyes." "And as good, I am sure, as she was beautiful." "Ah me!" said Tommy.
His confidante was burning to know more, and hoping they were being observed across the table; but she was a kind, sentimental creature, though stout, or because of it, and she said, "I am so afraid that my questions pain you." "No, no," said Tommy, who was very, very happy.
"Was it very sudden ?" "Fever." "Ah! but I meant your attachment." "We met and we loved," he said with gentle dignity.
"That is the true way," said the lady.
"It is the only way," he said decisively.
"Mr.Sandys, you have been so good, I wonder if you would tell me her name ?" "Felicity," he said, with emotion.

Presently he looked up.

"It is very strange to me," he said wonderingly, "to find myself saying these things to you who an hour ago were a complete stranger to me.

But you are not like other women." "No, indeed!" said the lady, warmly.
"That," he said, "must be why I tell you what I have never told to another human being.

How mysterious are the workings of the heart!" "Mr.Sandys," said the lady, quite carried away, "no words of mine can convey to you the pride with which I hear you say that.