cousin Hal, while
Grey was going another way. And Neil said good-by without a pang, but
Bessie was full of regret, especially for Grey, whom she should miss so
much and to whom she said she hoped she should see him again.

"I am sure you will," he answered. "I am to leave Oxford next summer and
join my Aunt Lucy, who is coming in June for a trip on the Continent.
But before I go home I shall come here again, and I shall always
remember this Christmas as the pleasantest I ever spent, and shall keep
the knot of ribbon as a souvenir of Stoneleigh and you. Good-by," and
with a pressure of the hand he had held in his all the time he was
talking, he was gone, and Bessie felt that something very bright and
strong and helpful had suddenly been taken from her, and nothing left in
its place but Neil, who, by contrast with the American, did not seem to
her quite the same Neil as before.

CHAPTER XII.

THE CONTRACT.

For nearly a week longer, Neil remained at Stoneleigh, growing more and
more undecided as to his future course, and more and more in love with
Bessie, whose evident depression of spirits after the departure of Jack
Trevellian and Grey Jerrold had driven him nearly wild. All the better
part of Neil's nature was in the ascendant now, and he was seriously
debating the question whether it were not wiser to marry the woman he
loved, and share his poverty with her, than to marry the woman he did
not love, even though she had ten thousand a year. Yes, it was better,
he decided at last, and one day when Archie had gone to Bangor and he
was alone with Bessie, who sat by the window engaged in the very
unpoetical occupation of darning her father's socks, he spoke his mind.

The storm, which was raging at Christmas, had ceased, and the winter
sunshine came in at the window where Bessie was sitting, lighting up her
hair and face with a halo which made Neil think of the Madonnas which
had looked at him from the walls of the galleries in Rome.

"There!" she said, as she finished one sock, and removing from it the
porcelain ball, held it up to view. "That is done, and it looks almost
as good as new."

Then she took another from the basket, and adjusting the ball inside,
began the darning process again, while Neil looked steadily at her. Had
Grey Jerrold been there, he would have thought her the very
personification of what a little housewifely wife should be, and would
have admired the skill with which she wove back a