who was broke down by now and terrible wishful for Cora
to stay, pleaded with her in vain to do so; but the girl went on cooking
to a marvel, and excelling in surprises, and being a proper angel in the
house for a fortnight; and then crying oceans of tears, she packed her
belongings, and Farmer Maitland, the widower, carried her off to Moreton
in his market cart on market day.

'Tis said he offered her marriage before they were halfway up Merripit
Hill and out of sight of her native village; but he was unsuccessful, and
afore noon Cora found herself in the arms of Nicholas Caunter. Two days
after, the day being Sunday, him and her were married and off to Ashburton
for a bit of a honeymoon. And then, when their united money was down to
ten pounds, Cora struck her last stroke.

She waited and watched the _Moreton Trumpet_, the paper her aunt took up,
and then come the expected advertisement telling how Mrs. Sarah Dene of
Little Silver was wishful to employ a man and his wife; and on the day
after it appeared, off she went along with Nicholas in a hired trap and
drove into the village so bold as need be.

Then Cora left her husband at the 'Three Travellers' and walked down to
Mrs. Dene, and found her aunt sitting helpless afore a score of letters
from married folk all very wishful to join her.

Cora told her news and how she'd found and married Nicholas; and then she
brought peace and order and hope into her aunt's heart, according to her
custom; and the sight of her awakened a great hope in Mrs. Dene, though it
sank again when she grasped that Cora was no more a free creature, but
given over to the keeping of a man.

And then, of course, the old woman said exactly what her niece knew she
would say. Cora had looked through the applications and didn't feel too
hopeful about any of 'em.

"The first thing is the cooking," she declared. "A bad cook's going to
shorten your life, Aunt Sarah, and my mind always sinks when I think of
it. You're thinner than when I saw you last, for that matter, and I'm
going to make one of my mutton pies for you this day before I say
'good-bye.'"

And then--a world of anxiety in her eyes--Mrs. Dene wondered if 'twas in
the power of possibility that Nicholas Caunter would see his way to come
to her if all she'd got was left to Cora in the hereafter, under her will.

And the young woman stared with amazement, and declared no such thought as
that had ever crossed her mind.

"Wonders never c