r. Could that man, who looked so like
Humfrey, be thinking how those firs would cut up into sleepers?

'Do you know,' said Phoebe, eagerly, 'he says this wood is a little
likeness of his favourite place in his old home.'

'I am afraid,' he added, as if apologizing, 'I shall always feel most at
home in the smell of pine-trees.'

Mervyn's predictions began to lose their force, and Honor smiled.

'But,' said Phoebe, turning to her, 'I was longing to beg your pardon. I
did not like to have any secret from you.'

'Ah! you cunning children,' said Honor, finding surface work easiest;
'you stole a march upon us all.'

'I could not help it,' said Phoebe.

They both laughed, and turning to him, she said, 'Now, could I? When you
spoke to me, I could only tell the truth.'

'And I suppose he could not help it,' said Honor.

'Of course not, if there was no reason for helping it,' he said. There
could be no dwelling on the horrible things that he would perpetrate,
while he looked so like the rightful squire, and while both were so fair
a sight in their glad gratitude; and she found herself saying, 'You will
bear our name.'

There might be a pang in setting aside that of his father, but he looked
at the glowing cheeks and glistening eyes beside him, and said, 'Answer
for me.'

'It is what I should like best of all,' Phoebe said, fervently.

'If we can deserve to bear it,' he gravely added.

And something in his tone made Honora feel confident that, even if he
should set up an engine-house, it would be only if Humfrey would have
done so in his place.

'It will be belonging to you all the more,' said Phoebe. 'It is one
great pleasure that now I shall have a right to you!'

'Yes, Phoebe, the old woman will depend on you, her "Eastern moon
brightening as day's wild lights decline." But she will trouble you no
longer. Finish your walk with Humfrey.' It was the first time she had
called him by that name.

'No,' they said, with one voice, 'we were waiting to walk home with you,
if we may.'

There was something in that walk, in the tender, respectful kindness with
which she was treated, in the intelligent interest that Humfrey showed in
the estate, his clear-headed truthfulness on the need of change, and his
delicate deference in proposing alteration, that set her heart at rest,
made her feel that the 'goodly heritage' was in safe hands, and that she
had a staff in her hands for the first time since that Sunday in