t it suited him so to speak of it. "My days for having an
estate were quickly brought to a close;--were they not?" This he said
with a little laugh, and then hated himself for having spoken so
foolishly.

"Does that make you unhappy, Mr. Newton?" she asked. He did not
answer her at once, and she continued, "I should have thought that
you were above being made unhappy by that."

"Such disappointments carry many things with them of which people
outside see nothing."

"That is true, no doubt."

"A man may be separated from every friend he has in the world by such
a change of circumstances."

"I had not thought of that. I beg your pardon," said she, looking
into his face almost imploringly.

"And there may be worse than that," he said. Of course she knew what
he meant, but he did not know how much she knew. "It is easy to say
that a man should stand up against reverses,--but there are some
reverses a man cannot bear without suffering." She had quite made up
her mind that the one reverse of which she was thinking should be
cured; but she could take no prominent step towards curing it yet.
But that some step should be taken sooner or later she was resolved.
It might be taken now, indeed, if he would only speak out. But she
quite understood that he would not speak out now because that house
down in Norfolk was no more than a farm. "But I didn't mean to
trouble you with all that nonsense," he said.

"It doesn't trouble me at all. Of course you will tell us everything
when you come to see us."

"There is very little to tell,--unless you care for cows and pigs,
and sheep and horses."

"I do care for cows and pigs, and sheep and horses," she said.

"All the same, they are not pleasant subjects of conversation. A man
may do as much good with a single farm as he can with a large estate;
but he can't make his affairs as interesting to other people." There
was present to his own mind the knowledge that he and his rich
namesake were rivals in regard to the affections of this beautiful
girl, and he could not avoid allusions to his own inferiority. And
yet his own words, as soon as they were spoken and had sounded in
his ear, were recognised by himself as being mean and pitiful,--as
whining words, and sorry plaints against the trick which fortune had
played him. He did not know how to tell her boldly that he lamented
this change from the estate to the farm because he had hoped that
she would share the one with him, and did