d that night you would not have
asked me now."

"Barbara!"

She glanced up at him; the tone was so painful.

"Do you know that I _love_ you? That there is none other in the whole
world whom I would care to marry but you? Nay, Barbara, when happiness
is within our reach, let us not throw it away upon a chimera."

She cried more softly, leaning upon his arm. "Happiness? Would it be
happiness for you?"

"Great and deep happiness," he whispered.

She read truth in his countenance, and a sweet smile illumined her sunny
features. Mr. Carlyle read its signs.

"You love me as much as ever, Barbara!"

"Far more, far more," was the murmured answer, and Mr. Carlyle held her
closer, and drew her face fondly to his. Barbara's heart was at length
at rest, and she had been content to remain where she was forever.

And Richard? Had he got clear off? Richard was stealing along the road,
plunging into the snow by the hedge because it was more sheltered there
than in the beaten path, when his umbrella came in contact with another
umbrella. Miss Carlyle had furnished it to him; not to protect his
battered hat but to protect his face from being seen by the passers by.
The umbrella he encountered was an aristocratic silk one, with an ivory
handle; Dick's was of democratic cotton, with hardly any handle at all;
and the respective owners had been bearing on, heads down and umbrellas
out, till they, the umbrellas, met smash, right under a gas lamp. Aside
went the umbrellas, and the antagonists stared at each other.

"How dare you, fellow? Can't you see where you are going on?"

Dick thought he should have dropped. He would have given all the money
his pockets held if the friendly earth had but opened and swallowed him
in; for he was now peering into the face of his own father.

Uttering an exclamation of dismay, which broke from him involuntarily,
Richard sped away with the swiftness of an arrow. Did Justice Hare
recognize the tones? It cannot be said. He saw a rough, strange looking
man, with bushy, black whiskers, who was evidently scared at the sight
of him. That was nothing; for the justice, being a justice, and a strict
one, was regarded with considerable awe in the parish by those of
Dick's apparent caliber. Nevertheless, he stood still and gazed in the
direction until all sound of Richard's footsteps had died away in the
distance.

Tears were streaming down the face of Mrs. Hare. It was a bright morning
after the snowstor