Each of us has God's will to do, and our own race to run; and may we
prosper."
After this, Steve, sometimes gaining and sometimes losing, gradually
won his way back to the squire's liking. September proved to be an
unusually fair month; and to the lovers it was full of happiness, for
early in it their relation to each other was fully recognized; and
Stephen had gone in and out of the pleasant "Seat," dayshine and dark,
as the acknowledged lover of Charlotte Sandal. The squire, upon the
whole, submitted gracefully: he only stipulated that for some time,
indefinitely postponed, the subject of marriage was not to be taken into
consideration. "I could not bear it any road. I could not bear it yet,
Stephen. Wait your full time, and be glad to wait. So few young men will
understand that to pluck the blossom is to destroy the fruit."
Towards the end of September, there was a letter from Sophia dated
Florence. Some letters are like some individuals, they carry with them a
certain unpleasant atmosphere. None of Sophia's epistles had been very
satisfactory; for they were so short, and yet so definitely pinned to
Julius, that they were but commentaries on that individual. At Paris she
had simply asked Julius, "What do _you_ think of Paris?" And the opinion
of Julius was then given to Seat-Sandal confidently as the only correct
estimate that the world was likely to get. At Venice, Rome, Naples, her
plan was identical; and any variation of detail simply referred to the
living at different places, and how Julius liked it, and how it had
agreed with him.
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