ry satisfactory visit came to an end. Darton
descended the roots of the sycamore, the light was withdrawn, and the
door closed. At the bottom of the slope he nearly ran against a man
about to ascend.

'Can a jack-o'-lent believe his few senses on such a dark night, or can't
he?' exclaimed one whose utterance Darton recognized in a moment, despite
its unexpectedness. 'I dare not swear he can, though I fain would!' The
speaker was Johns.

Darton said he was glad of this opportunity, bad as it was, of putting an
end to the silence of years, and asked the dairyman what he was
travelling that way for.

Japheth showed the old jovial confidence in a moment. 'I'm going to see
your--relations--as they always seem to me,' he said--'Mrs. Hall and
Sally. Well, Charles, the fact is I find the natural barbarousness of
man is much increased by a bachelor life, and, as your leavings were
always good enough for me, I'm trying civilization here.' He nodded
towards the house.

'Not with Sally--to marry her?' said Darton, feeling something like a
rill of ice water between his shoulders.

'Yes, by the help of Providence and my personal charms. And I think I
shall get her. I am this road every week--my present dairy is only four
miles off, you know, and I see her through the window. 'Tis rather odd
that I was going to speak practical to-night to her for the first time.
You've just called?'

'Yes, for a short while. But she didn't say a word about you.'

'A good sign, a good sign. Now that decides me. I'll swing the mallet
and get her answer this very night as I planned.'

A few more remarks, and Darton, wishing his friend joy of Sally in a
slightly hollow tone of jocularity, bade him good-bye. Johns promised to
write particulars, and ascended, and was lost in the shade of the house
and tree. A rectangle of light appeared when Johns was admitted, and all
was dark again.

'Happy Japheth!' said Darton. 'This then is the explanation!'

He determined to return home that night. In a quarter of an hour he
passed out of the village, and the next day went about his swede-lifting
and storing as if nothing had occurred.

He waited and waited to hear from Johns whether the wedding-day was
fixed: but no letter came. He learnt not a single particular till,
meeting Johns one day at a horse-auction, Darton exclaimed
genially--rather more genially than he felt--'When is the joyful day to
be?'

To his great surprise a recipro