improved health, to Grove Lane, and thanking him once more for his
allowing her to make so long a stay in Cornwall. If he wished to see
her, she would be at home at any time convenient to him. In a few days
the old gentleman called, and for an hour or two discoursed well-meaning
commonplace. He was sorry to observe that she looked a trifle pale; in
the autumn she must go away again, and to a more bracing locality--he
would suggest Broadstairs, which had always exercised the most
beneficial effect upon his own health. Above all, he begged her to
refrain from excessive study, most deleterious to a female constitution.
Then he asked questions about Horace, and agreed with Nancy that the
young man ought to decide upon some new pursuit, if he had definitely
abandoned the old; lack of steady occupation was most deleterious at his
age. In short, Mr. Barmby rather apologised for his guardianship than
sought to make assertion of it; and Nancy, by a few feminine devices,
won a better opinion than she had hitherto enjoyed. On the day
following, Samuel Barmby and his sisters waited upon Miss. Lord; all
three were surprisingly solemn, and Samuel talked for the most part of a
'paragraph' he had recently read, which stated that the smoke of London,
if properly utilised, would be worth a vast sum of money. 'The English
are a wasteful people,' was his conclusion; to which Nancy assented with
a face as grave as his own.

Not a little to her astonishment, the next day brought her a long letter
in Samuel's fair commercial hand. It began by assuring her that the
writer had no intention whatever of troubling her with the renewal of
a suit so firmly rejected on more than one occasion; he wished only to
take this opportunity of her return from a long absence to express the
abiding nature of his devotion, which years hence would be unbroken
as to-day. He would never distress her by unwelcome demonstrations;
possibly she might never again hear from his lips what he now committed
to paper. Enough for him, Samuel, to cherish a love which could not but
exalt and purify him, which was indeed, 'in the words of Shakespeare, "a
liberal education."' In recompense of his self-command, he only besought
that Miss. Lord would allow him, from time to time, to look upon her
face, and to converse with her of intellectual subjects. 'A paper,'
he added, 'which I read last week at our Society, is now being
printed--solely at the request of friends. The subject is