here; and that I mean you to come again."

As Lorna said this, with a manner as confident as need be, I saw that
she had learned in town the power of her beauty, and knew that she could
do with most men aught she set her mind upon. And as she stood there,
flushed with pride and faith in her own loveliness, and radiant with the
love itself, I felt that she must do exactly as she pleased with every
one. For now, in turn, and elegance, and richness, and variety, there
was nothing to compare with her face, unless it were her figure.
Therefore I gave in, and said,--

"Darling, do just what you please. Only make no rogue of me."

For that she gave me the simplest, kindest, and sweetest of all kisses;
and I went down the great stairs grandly, thinking of nothing else but
that.

[Illustration: 631.jpg Old London Bridge]

CHAPTER LXVIII

JOHN IS JOHN NO LONGER

[Illustration: 632.jpg Illustrated Capital]

It would be hard for me to tell the state of mind in which I lived for a
long time after this. I put away from me all torment, and the thought of
future cares, and the sight of difficulty; and to myself appeared,
which means that I became the luckiest of lucky fellows, since the world
itself began. I thought not of the harvest even, nor of the men who
would get their wages without having earned them, nor of my mother's
anxiety and worry about John Fry's great fatness (which was growing upon
him), and how she would cry fifty times in a day, "Ah, if our John would
only come home, how different everything would look!"

Although there were no soldiers now quartered at Plover's Barrows, all
being busied in harassing the country, and hanging the people where the
rebellion had thriven most, my mother, having received from me a message
containing my place of abode, contrived to send me, by the pack-horses,
as fine a maund as need be of provisions, and money, and other comforts.
Therein I found addressed to Colonel Jeremiah Stickles, in Lizzie's best
handwriting, half a side of the dried deer's flesh, in which he rejoiced
so greatly. Also, for Lorna, a fine green goose, with a little salt
towards the tail, and new-laid eggs inside it, as well as a bottle of
brandied cherries, and seven, or it may have been eight pounds of fresh
homemade butter. Moreover, to myself there was a letter full of good
advice, excellently well expressed, and would have been of the greatest
value, if I had cared to read it. But I read all about