Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 3.djvu/342

332 a kiss upon her lips, and another, and another—for I was as daring and impetuous now as I had been backward and constrained before.

"No—in another year," replied she, gently disengaging herself from my embrace, but still fondly clasping my hand.

"Another year! Oh, Helen, I could not wait so long!"

"Where is your fidelity?"

"I mean I could not endure the misery of so long a separation."

"It would not be a separation: we will write every day; my spirit shall be always with you; and sometimes you shall see me with your bodily eye. I will not be such a hypocrite as to pretend that I desire to wait so long myself, but as my marriage is to please myself alone, I ought to consult my friends about the time of it."

"Your friends will disapprove."

"They will not greatly disapprove, dear