en spoken, were fresh in his memory.
"He used to come to our house at Norwich,--and I loved him." Then she
had told him that this lover had been poor, and had gone away. He
had, since that, argued it out with himself, and with her too, on
the theory, though not expressed, that a lover who had gone away now
nearly three years ago, and had not been heard of, and had been poor
when he went, was of no use, and should be forgotten. "Let there
be no mention of him between us," he had intended to say, "and the
memory of him will fade away." But now on this very day he was back
among them, and there was Mary hardly able to open her mouth in his
presence.

He had bowed twice very stiffly when Gordon had spoken of all that
he had done on Mary's behalf. "Arrangements have been made," he said,
"which may, I trust, tend to Miss Lawrie's advantage. Perhaps I ought
not to say so myself, but there is no reason why I should trouble a
stranger with them."

"I hope I may never be considered a stranger by Miss Lawrie," said
Gordon, turning round to the young lady.

"No, not a stranger," said Mary; "certainly not a stranger."

But this did not satisfy John Gordon, who felt that there was
something in her manner other than he would have it. And yet even to
him it seemed to be impossible now, at this first moment, to declare
his love before this man, who had usurped the place of her guardian.
In fact he could not speak to her at all before Mr Whittlestaff. He
had hurried back from the diamond-fields, in order that he might lay
all his surprisingly gotten wealth at Mary's feet, and now he felt
himself unable to say a word to Mary of his wealth, unless in this
man's presence. He told himself as he had hurried home that there
might be difficulties in his way. He might find her married,--or
promised in marriage. He had been sure of her love when he started.
He had been quite confident that, though no absolute promise had been
made from her to him, or from him to her, there had then been no
reason for him to doubt. In spite of that, she might have married
now, or been promised in marriage. He knew that she must have been
poor and left in want when her stepmother had died. She had told him
of the intentions for her life, and he had answered that perhaps in
the course of events something better might come up for her. Then he
had been called a pauper, and had gone away to remedy that evil if
it might be possible. He had heard while working among