es on in the
course he has chosen, yours will have been a noble choice, Honor; and I
believe,' he added, with a sweetness of smile that almost made her
forgive the _if_, 'that you are one to be better pleased _so_ than with
more ordinary happiness. I have no doubt it is all right.'

'Dear Humfrey, you are so good!' she said, struck with his kind
resignation, and utter absence of acerbity in his disappointment.

'Forget this, Honora,' he said, as they were coming to the end of the
pine wood; 'let us be as we were before.'

Honora gladly promised, and excepting for her wonder at such a step on
the part of the cousin whose plaything and pet she had hitherto been, she
had no temptation to change her manner. She loved him as much as ever,
but only as a kind elder brother, and she was glad that he was wise
enough to see his immeasurable inferiority to the young missionary. It
was a wonderful thing, and she was sorry for his disappointment; but
after all, he took it so quietly that she did not think it could have
hurt him much. It was only that he wanted to keep his pet in the
country. He was not capable of love like Owen Sandbrook's.

* * * * *

Years passed on. Rumour had bestowed Mr. Charlecote of Hiltonbury on
every lady within twenty miles, but still in vain. His mother was dead,
his sister married to an old college fellow, who had waited half a
lifetime for a living, but still he kept house alone.

And open house it was, with a dinner-table ever expanding for chance
guests, strawberry or syllabub feasts half the summer, and Christmas
feasts extending wide on either side of the twelve days. Every one who
wanted a holiday was free of the Holt; young sportsmen tried their
inexperienced guns under the squire's patient eye; and mammas disposed of
their children for weeks together, to enjoy the run of the house and
garden, and rides according to age, on pony, donkey, or Mr. Charlecote.
No festivity in the neighbourhood was complete without his sunshiny
presence; he was wanted wherever there was any family event; and was
godfather, guardian, friend, and adviser of all. Every one looked on him
as a sort of exclusive property, yet he had room in his heart for all.
As a magistrate, he was equally indispensable in county government, and a
charity must be undeserving indeed that had not Humfrey Charlecote, Esq.,
on the committee. In his own parish he was a beneficent monarch; on his
ow