lly.

Darton tore it open; it was very short.

'DEAR MR. DARTON,--We have been so alarmed these last few days by the
report that you were ruined by the stoppage of --'s Bank, that, now it
is contradicted I hasten, by my mother's wish, to say how truly glad
we are to find there is no foundation for the report. After your
kindness to my poor brother's children, I can do no less than write at
such a moment. We had a letter from each of them a few days ago.--Your
faithful friend,

'SALLY HALL.'

'Mercenary little woman!' said Darton to himself with a smile. 'Then
that was the secret of her refusal this time--she thought I was ruined.'

Now, such was Darton, that as hours went on he could not help feeling too
generously towards Sally to condemn her in this. What did he want in a
wife? he asked himself. Love and integrity. What next? Worldly wisdom.
And was there really more than worldly wisdom in her refusal to go aboard
a sinking ship? She now knew it was otherwise. 'Begad,' he said, 'I'll
try her again.'

The fact was he had so set his heart upon Sally, and Sally alone, that
nothing was to be allowed to baulk him; and his reasoning was purely
formal.

Anniversaries having been unpropitious, he waited on till a bright day
late in May--a day when all animate nature was fancying, in its trusting,
foolish way, that it was going to bask out of doors for evermore. As he
rode through Long-Ash Lane it was scarce recognizable as the track of his
two winter journeys. No mistake could be made now, even with his eyes
shut. The cuckoo's note was at its best, between April tentativeness and
midsummer decrepitude, and the reptiles in the sun behaved as winningly
as kittens on a hearth. Though afternoon, and about the same time as on
the last occasion, it was broad day and sunshine when he entered Hintock,
and the details of the Knap dairy-house were visible far up the road. He
saw Sally in the garden, and was set vibrating. He had first intended to
go on to the inn; but 'No,' he said; 'I'll tie my horse to the garden-
gate. If all goes well it can soon be taken round: if not, I mount and
ride away'

The tall shade of the horseman darkened the room in which Mrs. Hall sat,
and made her start, for he had ridden by a side path to the top of the
slope, where riders seldom came. In a few seconds he was in the garden
with Sally.

Five--ay, three minutes--did the business at the back of that ro