orgotten in her new circumstances,
and getting to be generally accepted as the widow of a sergeant-major of
dragoons--an assumption which her modest and mournful demeanour seemed to
substantiate--her life became a placid one, her mind being nourished by
the melancholy luxury of dreaming what might have been her future in New
Zealand with John, if he had only lived to take her there. Her only
travels now were a journey to Ivell on market-days, and once a fortnight
to the churchyard in which Clark lay, there to tend, with Johnny's
assistance, as widows are wont to do, the flowers she had planted upon
his grave.

On a day about eighteen months after his unexpected decease, Selina was
surprised in her lodging over her little shop by a visit from Bartholomew
Miller. He had called on her once or twice before, on which occasions he
had used without a word of comment the name by which she was known.

'I've come this time,' he said, 'less because I was in this direction
than to ask you, Mrs. Clark, what you mid well guess. I've come o'
purpose, in short.'

She smiled.

''Tis to ask me again to marry you?'

'Yes, of course. You see, his coming back for 'ee proved what I always
believed of 'ee, though others didn't. There's nobody but would be glad
to welcome you to our parish again, now you've showed your independence
and acted up to your trust in his promise. Well, my dear, will you
come?'

'I'd rather bide as Mrs. Clark, I think,' she answered. 'I am not
ashamed of my position at all; for I am John's widow in the eyes of
Heaven.'

'I quite agree--that's why I've come. Still, you won't like to be always
straining at this shop-keeping and market-standing; and 'twould be better
for Johnny if you had nothing to do but tend him.'

He here touched the only weak spot in Selina's resistance to his
proposal--the good of the boy. To promote that there were other men she
might have married offhand without loving them if they had asked her to;
but though she had known the worthy speaker from her youth, she could not
for the moment fancy herself happy as Mrs. Miller.

He paused awhile. 'I ought to tell 'ee, Mrs. Clark,' he said by and by,
'that marrying is getting to be a pressing question with me. Not on my
own account at all. The truth is, that mother is growing old, and I am
away from home a good deal, so that it is almost necessary there should
be another person in the house with her besides me. That's the practi