on in the quiet deliberate tone that made it so difficult to interrupt
him--'then I could, in my own person, negotiate for the sale of the
mines. I find there is an offer that Robson kept secret. I could wind
up the accounts, see what can be saved for the Northwold people, and
take you safe home by the end of a fortnight.'

'Oh, Louis!' cried Mary, almost sobbing, 'this will not do. I cannot
entangle you in our ruinous affairs.'

'Insufficient objections are consent,' said Louis, smiling. 'Do you
trust me, Mary?'

'It is of no use to ask.'

'You think I am not to be trusted with affairs that have become my own!
I believe I am, Mary. You know I must do my utmost for the Dynevors;
and I assure you I see my way. I have no reasonable doubt of clearing
off all future liabilities. You mean to let me arrange?'

'Yes, but--'

'Then why not obviate all awkward situations at once?'

'My father! You should not ask it, Louis.'

'I would not hasten you, but for the sake of my own father, Mary. He
is growing old, and I could not have left him for anything but the hope
of bringing him his own chosen daughter. I want you to help me take
care of him, and we must not leave him alone to the long evenings and
cold winds.'

Mary was yielding--'I must not keep you from him,' she said, 'but
to-morrow--a Sunday, too--'

'Ah! Mary, do you want gaiety! No, if we cannot have it in a holy
place, let it at least have the consecration of the day--let us have
fifty-two wedding days a year instead of one. Indeed, I would not
press you, but that I could take care of you so much better, and it is
not as if our acquaintance had not begun--how long ago--twenty-seven
years, I think?'

'Settle it as you like,' she managed to say, with a great flood of
tears-but what soft bright tears! 'I trust you.'

He saw she wanted solitude; he only stayed for a few words of earnest
thanks, and the assurance that secrecy and quietness would be best
assured by speed. 'I will come back,' he said, 'when I have seen to
the arrangement. And there is one thing I must do first, one poor
fellow who must not be left in suspense any longer.'

Tired as he ought to have been, he lightly crossed the sala to the room
appropriated to business, where he had desired the two clerks to wait
for him, and where Tom Madison stood against the wall, with folded
arms, while Ford lounged in a disengaged attitude on a chair, but rose
alert and respectful at his app