y were a
supplication he had gained a victory. Yes, though she had striven with
all her might to deny, she had bade him hope. He left her without so
much as a touch of the hand, because she had wished it. And yet she
loved him! Incredible fact! Incredible conjury which made him doubt that
his feet touched the snow of Brampton Street, which blotted, as with a
golden glow, the faces and the houses of Brampton from his sight. He saw
no one, though many might have accosted him. That part of him which was
clay, which performed the menial tasks of his being, had kindly taken
upon itself to fetch his bag from the house to the station, and to board
the train.

Ah, but Brampton had seen him!

CHAPTER XIV

Great events, like young Mr. Worthington's visit to Brampton, are all
very well for a while, but they do not always develop with sufficient
rapidity to satisfy the audiences of the drama. Seven days were an
interlude quite long enough in which to discuss every phase and bearing
of this opening scene, and after that the play in all justice ought to
move on. But there it halted--for a while--and the curtain obstinately
refused to come up. If the inhabitants of Brampton had only known that
the drama, when it came, would be well worth waiting for, they might
have been less restless.

It is unnecessary to enrich the pages of this folio with all the
footnotes and remarks of, the sages of Brampton. These can be condensed
into a paragraph of two--and we can ring up the curtain when we like
on the next scene, for which Brampton had to wait considerably over a
month. There is to be no villain in this drama with the face of an Abbe
Maury like the seven cardinal sins. Comfortable looking Mr. Dodd of the
prudential committee, with his chin-tuft of yellow beard, is cast for
the part of the villain, but will play it badly; he would have been
better suited to a comedy part.

Young Mr. Worthington left Brampton on the five o'clock train, and at
six Mr. Dodd met his fellow-member of the committee, Judge Graves.

"Called a meetin'?" asked Mr. Dodd, pulling the yellow tuft.

"What for?" said the judge, sharply.

"What be you a-goin' to do about it?" said Mr. Dodd.

"Do about what?" demanded the judge, looking at the hardware dealer from
under his eyebrows.

Mr. Dodd knew well enough that this was not ignorance on the part of Mr.
Graves, whose position in the matter dad been very well defined in
the two sentences he had spoken. M