full measure of his wrath and vengeance would be wreaked on Joe, who
had preserved her; these were considerations she had not the courage to
overcome, and inducements to secrecy too powerful for her to surmount.

Joe, for his part, was a great deal too happy to inquire very curiously
into the matter; and Dolly being yet too tremulous to walk without
assistance, they went forward very slowly, and in his mind very
pleasantly, until the Maypole lights were near at hand, twinkling their
cheerful welcome, when Dolly stopped suddenly and with a half scream
exclaimed,

'The letter!'

'What letter?' cried Joe.

'That I was carrying--I had it in my hand. My bracelet too,' she said,
clasping her wrist. 'I have lost them both.'

'Do you mean just now?' said Joe.

'Either I dropped them then, or they were taken from me,' answered
Dolly, vainly searching her pocket and rustling her dress. 'They are
gone, both gone. What an unhappy girl I am!' With these words poor
Dolly, who to do her justice was quite as sorry for the loss of the
letter as for her bracelet, fell a-crying again, and bemoaned her fate
most movingly.

Joe tried to comfort her with the assurance that directly he had housed
her in the Maypole, he would return to the spot with a lantern (for it
was now quite dark) and make strict search for the missing articles,
which there was great probability of his finding, as it was not likely
that anybody had passed that way since, and she was not conscious that
they had been forcibly taken from her. Dolly thanked him very heartily
for this offer, though with no great hope of his quest being successful;
and so with many lamentations on her side, and many hopeful words on
his, and much weakness on the part of Dolly and much tender supporting
on the part of Joe, they reached the Maypole bar at last, where the
locksmith and his wife and old John were yet keeping high festival.

Mr Willet received the intelligence of Dolly's trouble with that
surprising presence of mind and readiness of speech for which he was so
eminently distinguished above all other men. Mrs Varden expressed her
sympathy for her daughter's distress by scolding her roundly for being
so late; and the honest locksmith divided himself between condoling with
and kissing Dolly, and shaking hands heartily with Joe, whom he could
not sufficiently praise or thank.

In reference to this latter point, old John was far from agreeing with
his friend; for besides that