"You'll find it quite an easy walk——under three miles, I think."

"Well, now that we've settled that point, let me retort your own remark upon yourself. I don't think you're looking quite your best!"

"I daresay not," she replied in a low voice; and a sudden shadow seemed to overspread her face. "I've had some troubles lately. It's a matter about which I've been long wishing to consult you, but I couldn't easily write about it. I'm so glad to have this opportunity!"

"Do you think," she began again, after a minute's silence, and with a visible embarrassment of manner most unusual in her, "that a promise, deliberately and solemnly given, is always binding——except, of course, where its fulfilment would involve some actual sin?"

"I ca'n't think of any other exception at this moment," I said. "That branch of casuistry is usually, I believe, treated as a question of truth and untruth——"

"Surely that is the principle?" she eagerly interrupted. "I always thought the Bible-teaching about it consisted of such texts as 'lie not one to another'?"