rd didn't trouble Cobley over
much. He got his receipt and Bewes promised the deed should be drawn when
he saw his lawyer to Moreton next market-day.

So they parted tolerable good friends, and it was understood between 'em
that Jack should tell Mrs. Pedlar how things stood at his own time and
nobody should be told who the purchaser was.

It happened, however, that he did not tell Jane after all, for, going down
from Bewes in the red of the sunset, Jack fell in with Milly Boon, whose
gait was set for the farm. He passed her a good evening, then marked a
world of woe in her face and the smudge of tears upon it, clear to see in
the last of the light, so he bade her stand a moment and tell him why for
she was going up the hill.

"'Tis private business, Mr. Cobley," she said, making to pass on; but he
heard by the flutter in her speech she'd been weeping, and in his slow way
held her back while he thought it out. He was got to know her tolerable
well by now, so he commanded her to bide and listen.

"You don't pass, Milly," he said, "till you tell me why for you be going."

"To have tea along with Mrs. Bewes," she answered.

He didn't believe that, however.

"'Tis too late for tea," he said. "You'll be going up to tell Bewes you'll
take his son if he'll let your aunt bide."

She didn't answer.

"So you can just turn round again and march home," went on Jack, "because
the case is altered. 'Twas a very fine thought and worthy of you in a
manner of speaking, Milly; but you can console yourself with your good
intentions now; because, in a word, the house is sold, and it don't belong
to farmer no more."

She stared and shook, and he touched her elbow and turned her back to the
village.

"Go home and tell Mrs. Pedlar the house be sold," ordered Jack. "And you
tell her also I've heard of the man that's bought it. She won't be called
to do nought but stop there rent-free as before; and the man's pleased
with his property and will work up the garden for his own purposes and
mend the leaks and put on some fresh paint come spring."

Milly was too staggered to grasp it all at once, and by the time she began
to see the blessed thing that was happening, Jack had gone.

So she went home light-foot with her sorrows beginning to fade and her
heart beating happy again. And Mrs. Pedlar praised her God far into the
night, though 'twas a full week before she could grasp the truth and wake
care-free of a morning.

But she heard n