ver one day, just before
dinner, and declared his intention of walking over to Allington
immediately after breakfast on the following morning. "It's the last
time, Lady Julia," he said.

"So you say, Johnny."

"And so I mean it! What's the good of a man frittering away his life?
What's the good of wishing for what you can't get?"

"Jacob was not in such a hurry when he wished for Rachel."

"That was all very well for an old patriarch who had seven or eight
hundred years to live."

"My dear John, you forget your Bible. Jacob did not live half as long
as that."

"He lived long enough, and slowly enough, to be able to wait fourteen
years;--and then he had something to comfort him in the meantime.
And after all, Lady Julia, it's more than seven years since I first
thought Lily was the prettiest girl I ever saw."

"How old are you now?"

"Twenty-seven--and she's twenty-four."

"You've time enough yet, if you'll only be patient."

"I'll be patient for to-morrow, Lady Julia, but never again. Not
that I mean to quarrel with her. I'm not such a fool as to quarrel
with a girl because she can't like me. I know how it all is. If that
scoundrel had not come across my path just when he did,--in that
very nick of time, all might have been right betwixt her and me. I
couldn't have offered to marry her before, when I hadn't as much
income as would have found her in bread-and-butter. And then, just as
better times came to me, he stepped in! I wonder whether it will be
expected of me that I should forgive him?"

"As far as that goes, you have no right to be angry with him."

"But I am,--all the same."

"And so was I,--but not for stepping in, as you call it."

"You and I are different, Lady Julia. I was angry with him for
stepping in; but I couldn't show it. Then he stepped out, and I did
manage to show it. And now I shouldn't wonder if he doesn't step in
again. After all, why should he have such a power? It was simply the
nick of time which gave it to him." That John Eames should be able to
find some consolation in this consideration is devoutly to be hoped
by us all.

There was nothing said about Lily Dale the next morning at breakfast.
Lady Julia observed that John was dressed a little more neatly than
usual;--though the change was not such as to have called for her
special observation, had she not known the business on which he was
intent.

"You have nothing to send to the Dales?" he said, as he got up from
the