the lady, and had no idea whatever as to the true state of her
feelings. Had he known what she knew, he would, I think, have been
animated enough, and gone to his task as happy and thriving a lover
as any. But he was a man somewhat diffident of himself, though
sufficiently conscious of the value of the worldly advantages which
he possessed;--and he was, perhaps, a little afraid of Clara, giving
her credit for an intellect superior to his own.

He had promised to walk with her on the Saturday after the reading
of the will, intending to take her out through the gardens down to
a farm, now belonging to himself, which lay at the back of the town,
and which was held by an old widow who had been senior in life to
her late landlady; but no such walk had been possible, as it was
dark before the last of the visitors from Taunton had gone. At
breakfast on Sunday he again proposed the walk, offering to take her
immediately after luncheon. "I suppose you will not go to church?" he
said.

"Not to-day. I could hardly bring myself to do it to-day."

"I think you are right. I shall go. A man can always do these things
sooner than a lady can. But you will come out afterwards?" To this
she assented, and then she was left alone throughout the morning.
The walk she did not mind. That she and Captain Aylmer should walk
together was all very well. They might probably have done so had Mrs.
Winterfield been still alive. It was the long evening afterwards that
she dreaded--the long winter evening, in which she would have to sit
with him as his guest, and with him only. She could not pass these
hours without talking to him, and she felt that she could not talk to
him naturally and easily. It would, however, be but for once, and she
would bear it.

They went together down to the house of Mrs. Partridge, the tenant,
and made their kindly speeches to the old woman. Mrs. Partridge
already knew that Captain Aylmer was to be her landlord, but having
hitherto seen more of Miss Amedroz than of the Captain, and having
always regarded her landlady's niece as being connected irrevocably
with the property, she addressed them as though the estate were a
joint affair.

"I shan't be here to trouble you long;--that I shan't, Miss Clara,"
said the old woman.

"I am sure Captain Aylmer would be very sorry to lose you," replied
Clara, speaking loud, and close to the poor woman's ear, for she was
deaf.

"I never looked to live after she was gone, Miss Cl