Sage Portlock's excitement had thoroughly mastered her, and she uttered quite a hysterical little cry, as the steps drew quite near now, and a voice exclaimed--

"Why, Sage, I almost had to run."

"Luke!"

"Yes; Luke," he replied, smiling, as he took her hand in his. "Who did you think it was?"

"I--I--didn't know; I wanted to get home quickly," she faltered. "I did not know it was you."

"I know that," he said, drawing her hand through his arm, "or else you would have stopped, wouldn't you?"

"Why, of course, Luke," she said, smiling in his face, and with a calm feeling of rest and protection coming over her disturbed spirit.

"I'm glad I caught you," he said. "Let's walk slowly, for I've a great deal to say to you before you go in."

"But, first of all, tell me, Luke, dear," she cried eagerly, "is the appointment confirmed?"

"No."

"No? Not confirmed? Then, that wicked old Bone--"

"That wicked old Bone of contention," he said, laughingly taking her up, "has had very little to do with it. At one time I thought that it would be very cruel to take his post, but I do not think so now."

"But not confirmed, Luke?" she cried, stopping short and clinging to his arm, the picture of bitter disappointment. "Why, this is the meaning, then, of the opposition uncle spoke of yesterday. Who has dared to stop you from having the school?"

"You," said Luke, as he gazed admiringly in her animated face.

"I, Luke? I?" she exclaimed, in a puzzled way.

"Well, it is through you, dear," he said, smiling.

"But I have done nothing, Luke," she cried. "You are teasing me! Has the meeting taken place?"

"Yes; I have just come from it."

"Well? Mr Bone was there I know, for he gave the boys a holiday, so that he might come."

"Yes, he was there, evidently looking upon me as the greatest enemy he had in the world till he heard me decline the post."

"You?--you declined the post, Luke?"

"Yes, I declined the post."

"And you told me you loved me," she said, reproachfully, as she drew back.

"As I do with all my heart," he cried, taking her hand, and drawing it through his arm once more. "Sage, dear, it is because I love you so well that I have declined to take the school."

"When it was so near," she cried; and her tears seemed to have stolen into her voice. "And now you will go and take a school ever so far away. Oh, Luke," she cried, piteously, "it is too bad!"

"Hush, little one," he said, firmly. "It is not like you to talk like that. I shall not take a school far away, though I shall have to leave you. Sage, dear, I have felt that I must give up present pleasure for a future joy."

"I--I--don't understand you," she cried; "your talk is all a puzzle to me."

"Is it, dear? There, it shall not be long. You know what your uncle said to me the other day?"

"Oh, yes, Luke; but I don't think he quite meant it."

"I am sure he did mean it," he replied; "and he is quite right. For the past year I have been learning lessons of self-denial, and been taught to place the schoolmaster's duty above questions of a pecuniary kind; but your uncle has placed my position in a practical light, and, Sage, dear, it is as if all the past teaching has been undone."

"Oh, Luke, Luke," she cried, "don't talk like that!"

"I must. I have had another talk with your uncle. This morning I overtook him, and he asked me, as a man, whom he says he can trust, to set aside all love-making, as he called it in his homely Saxon-English, and to treat you only as a friend! 'Let matters stand for the present, and see what a couple of years bring forth, if you are doing well,' he said, 'in your new position.'"

"In your new position, Luke? Why, what do you mean?"

"Sage, dear, I have decided to set aside the idea of being the master of a school."

"Oh, Luke!"

"And to read for the bar."

"Read for the bar?"

"Yes, read for the bar: become a barrister; and I shall work hard to win a name."

"But the school, Luke--the training college. It is not honest to take advantage of their teaching, gain all you can, and then take to some other career."

"You think that?" he said, smiling. "Yes, of course," she said, indignantly. "The princ.i.p.al at Westminster spoke very warmly about two of the students giving up their schools directly, and taking situations as governesses in good families."

"I quite agree with her," said Luke, quietly; "and I have appraised the cost to the inst.i.tution at fifty pounds. That sum I feel bound to send.

It is quite as much as so bad a master as I should have turned out is worth."

"Oh, Luke, that is nonsense," she cried, as she looked proudly in his face.

"Nay," he said, "it is truth. And now listen to me. This has all been very sudden."

"Yes, and you never said a word to me."

"I came and told you as soon as I knew," retorted Luke, firmly. "And now I say once more this has been very sudden, but it is irrevocably in obedience to your uncle's wishes. I shall exact no promises from you, tie you down in no way, but go away in perfect faith that in a few years as the reward of my hard struggle, and when I can go and say to your uncle, 'See, here, I can command the income you said that I ought to have!' you will be my little wife."

"But must you go away, Luke?" she said, with a pitiful look in her eyes.

"Yes, it is absolutely certain. How could I climb up in the world if I stayed here?"

"But I don't want you to go," she cried, excitedly.

"And I don't want to leave you," he said, fondly.