e seal unbroken, that is my affair. But keep perfectly
quiet, if you please, Mr. Gridley, about the whole matter. Mr. Bradshaw
is off, as you know, and the business on which he is gone is
important,--very important. He can be depended on for that; he has acted
all along as if he had a personal interest in the success of our firm
beyond his legal relation to it."

Mr. Penhallow's light burned very late in the office that night, and the
following one. He looked troubled and absent-minded, and when Miss Laura
ventured to ask him how long Mr. Bradshaw was like to be gone, he
answered her in such a way that the girl who waited at table concluded
that he did n't mean to have Miss Laury keep company with Mr. Bradshaw,
or he'd never have spoke so dreadful hash to her when she asked about
him.

CHAPTER XXXII.

SUSAN POSEY'S TRIAL.

A day or two after Myrtle Hazard returned to the village, Master Byles
Gridley, accompanied by Gifted Hopkins, followed her, as has been already
mentioned, to the same scene of the principal events of this narrative.
The young man had been persuaded that it would be doing injustice to his
talents to crowd their fruit prematurely upon the market. He carried his
manuscript back with him, having relinquished the idea of publishing for
the present. Master Byles Gridley, on the other hand, had in his pocket
a very flattering proposal, from the same publisher to whom he had
introduced the young poet, for a new and revised edition of his work,
"Thoughts on the Universe," which was to be remodelled in some respects,
and to have a new title not quite so formidable to the average reader.

It would be hardly fair to Susan Posey to describe with what delight and
innocent enthusiasm she welcomed back Gifted Hopkins. She had been so
lonely since he was away? She had read such of his poems as she
possessed--duplicates of his printed ones, or autographs which he had
kindly written out for her--over and over again, not without the sweet
tribute of feminine sensibility, which is the most precious of all
testimonials to a poet's power over the heart. True, her love belonged
to another,--but then she was so used to Gifted! She did so love to hear
him read his poems,--and Clement had never written that "little bit of a
poem to Susie," which she had asked him for so long ago! She received
him therefore with open arms,--not literally, of course, which would have
been a breach of duty and propriety, but