of his feet with a passionate
desire for Cora. Everything else in life sank out of sight, and he cussed
Providence good and hard for playing him such a cruel trick, not seeing it
was his own desire for the line of least resistance that had landed him
plighted to Mary Jane.

So you see James and his sister both well content, and reckoning in a dim
way at the back of their minds that each was going to be boss in the
married state, because the money and position was with them. And James had
reached the point when he saw himself married in another six months, after
he'd done the autumn work on his farm and could afford three days'
holiday. He reckoned such a lapse would be largely waste of time, for
money-making was his god; but a honeymoon appeared to be counted upon by
Cora, and he'd yielded reluctantly in that particular. Then Mary Jane, she
hoped to be wedded along with her brother, and counted on a very fine
holiday with Nicholas after, and even thought of going so far as London
for it.

So that's how they stood; and meantime, though Nicholas managed still to
hide his misery from Mary Jane, because they'd only been tokened a
fortnight, his heart, in truth, was long since gone to Cora. As for her,
she stood in perplexity because she liked her close lover less and less
and saw his smallness of vision and lust for the pence with growing hatred
and clearness; while, worse still, she couldn't but see that 'twas all
bunkum about Nicholas caring a straw for Mary Jane.

And far deeper than that she saw, because not only did the maiden discover
that Caunter was thinking a million times more about her than the other
girl; but to her undying amazement she found that Nicholas was working on
her heart very fierce indeed and that, though he played the game to the
best of his powers and respected her engagement and stood up for James
White and said he was a good man, though mean as an east wind and so on,
yet she very well knew what had happened to the pair of 'em, and being a
brave woman and much the cleverest of the four, she faced the situation in
secret and put it to herself in plain English.

Meantime, Cora's aunt was casting about for her own comfort, after the
girl should wed with White, and planning her arrangements without a
thought that clouds were in the sky.

And then came the amber heart into the affair, and to Cora's immense
astonishment James gave her a gift.

Him and his sister had talked on the subject of prese