And
yet there was one reservation on each side; on hers, that she
intended through her guardian to withdraw herself immediately from
the tuition of her music-master; on his, that he did already
entertain some wandering speculations whether it might ever come to
pass that he would know more of Miss Landless.
The bright, frosty day declined as they walked and spoke together.
The sun dipped in the river far behind them, and the old city lay
red before them, as their walk drew to a close. The moaning water
cast its seaweed duskily at their feet, when they turned to leave
its margin; and the rooks hovered above them with hoarse cries,
darker splashes in the darkening air.
'I will prepare Jack for my flitting soon,' said Edwin, in a low
voice, 'and I will but see your guardian when he comes, and then go
before they speak together. It will be better done without my
being by. Don't you think so?'
'Yes.'
'We know we have done right, Rosa?'
'Yes.'
'We know we are better so, even now?'
'And shall be far, far better so by-and-by.'
Still there was that lingering tenderness in their hearts towards
the old positions they were relinquishing, that they prolonged
their parting. When they came among the elm-trees by the
Cathedral, where they had last sat together, they stopped as by
consent, and Rosa raised her face to his, as she had never raised
it in the old days;--for they were old already.
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