The Woodlanders - Page 294/314

"It is the very thing I am doing. I was going to ask you to burn--or,

at least, get rid of--all my philosophical literature. It is in the

bookcases in your rooms. The fact is, I never cared much for abstruse

studies."

"I am so glad to hear you say that. And those other books--those piles

of old plays--what good are they to a medical man?"

"None whatever!" he replied, cheerfully. "Sell them at Sherton for

what they will fetch."

"And those dreadful old French romances, with their horrid spellings of

'filz' and 'ung' and 'ilz' and 'mary' and 'ma foy?'"

"You haven't been reading them, Grace?"

"Oh no--I just looked into them, that was all."

"Make a bonfire of 'em directly you get home. I meant to do it myself.

I can't think what possessed me ever to collect them. I have only a

few professional hand-books now, and am quite a practical man. I am in

hopes of having some good news to tell you soon, and then do you think

you could--come to me again?"

"I would rather you did not press me on that just now," she replied,

with some feeling. "You have said you mean to lead a new, useful,

effectual life; but I should like to see you put it in practice for a

little while before you address that query to me. Besides--I could not

live with you."

"Why not?"

Grace was silent a few instants. "I go with Marty to Giles's grave.

We swore we would show him that devotion. And I mean to keep it up."

"Well, I wouldn't mind that at all. I have no right to expect anything

else, and I will not wish you to keep away. I liked the man as well as

any I ever knew. In short, I would accompany you a part of the way to

the place, and smoke a cigar on the stile while I waited till you came

back."

"Then you haven't given up smoking?"

"Well--ahem--no. I have thought of doing so, but--"

His extreme complacence had rather disconcerted Grace, and the question

about smoking had been to effect a diversion. Presently she said,

firmly, and with a moisture in her eye that he could not see, as her

mind returned to poor Giles's "frustrate ghost," "I don't like you--to

speak lightly on that subject, if you did speak lightly. To be frank

with you--quite frank--I think of him as my betrothed lover still. I

cannot help it. So that it would be wrong for me to join you."