l!' said his sweetheart, sadly.

'We were not unlikely to revive it in a few days,' said Mr. Paddock.
'But, howsomever, there's seemingly many a slip, as the saying is.'

'Yes, I'll tell John all about that by and by!' interposed Selina; at
which, perceiving that the secret which he did not like keeping was to be
kept even yet, her father held his tongue with some show of testiness.

The subject of a dance having been broached, to put the thought in
practice was the feeling of all. Soon after the tables and chairs were
borne from the opposite room to this by zealous hands, and two of the
villagers sent home for a fiddle and tambourine, when the majority began
to tread a measure well known in that secluded vale. Selina naturally
danced with the sergeant-major, not altogether to her father's
satisfaction, and to the real uneasiness of her mother, both of whom
would have preferred a postponement of festivities till the rashly
anticipated relationship between their daughter and Clark in the past had
been made fact by the church's ordinances. They did not, however,
express a positive objection, Mr. Paddock remembering, with
self-reproach, that it was owing to his original strongly expressed
disapproval of Selina's being a soldier's wife that the wedding had been
delayed, and finally hindered--with worse consequences than were
expected; and ever since the misadventure brought about by his government
he had allowed events to steer their own courses.

'My tails will surely catch in your spurs, John!' murmured the daughter
of the house, as she whirled around upon his arm with the rapt soul and
look of a somnambulist. 'I didn't know we should dance, or I would have
put on my other frock.'

'I'll take care, my love. We've danced here before. Do you think your
father objects to me now? I've risen in rank. I fancy he's still a
little against me.'

'He has repented, times enough.'

'And so have I! If I had married you then 'twould have saved many a
misfortune. I have sometimes thought it might have been possible to rush
the ceremony through somehow before I left; though we were only in the
second asking, were we? And even if I had come back straight here when
we returned from the Crimea, and married you then, how much happier I
should have been!'

'Dear John, to say that! Why didn't you?'

'O--dilatoriness and want of thought, and a fear of facing your father
after so long. I was in hospital a great while, you