l her impudence to say what
she had made up her mind to say, "I have been considering it well
over, Jiffin, and I find that to carry out the marriage will not be for
my--for our happiness. I intended to write to inform you of this; but I
shall be spared the trouble--as you _have_ come out to me."

The perspiration, cold as ice, began to pour off Mr. Jiffin in his agony
and horror. You might have wrung every thread he had on. "You--don't
mean--to--imply--that--you--give--me--up--Miss--Afy?" he jerked out,
unevenly.

"Well, yes, I do," replied Afy. "It's as good to be plain, and then
there can be no misapprehension. I'll shake hands now with you,
Jiffin, for the last time; and I am very sorry that we both made such a
mistake."

Poor Jiffin looked at her. His gaze would have melted a heart of stone.
"Miss Afy, you _can't_ mean it! You'd never, sure, crush a fellow
in this manner, whose whole soul is yours; who trusted you entirely?
There's not an earthly thing I would not do to please you. You have been
the light of my existence."

"Of course," returned Afy, with a lofty and indifferent air, as if to
be "the light of his existence" was only her due. "But it's all done and
over. It is not at all a settlement that will suit me, you see, Jiffin.
A butter and bacon factor is so very--so very--what I have not been
accustomed to! And then, those aprons! I never could get reconciled to
them."

"I'll discard the aprons altogether," cried he, in a fever. "I'll get a
second shopman, and buy a little gig, and do nothing but drive you out.
I'll do anything if you will but have me still, Miss Afy. I have bought
the ring, you know."

"Your intentions are very kind," was the distant answer, "but it's
a thing impossible; my mind is fully made up. So farewell for good,
Jiffin; and I wish you better luck in your next venture."

Afy, lifting her capacious dress, for the streets had just been watered,
minced off. And Mr. Joe Jiffin, wiping his wet face as he gazed after
her, instantly wished that he could be nailed up in one of his pickled
pork barrels, and so be out of his misery.

"That's done with, thank goodness," soliloquized Afy. "Have _him_,
indeed. After what Richard let out on the trial. As if I should look
after anybody less than Dick Hare! I shall get him, too. I always knew
Dick Hare loved me above everything on earth; and he does still, or he'd
never had said what he did in open court. 'It's better to be born lucky
tha