f yu thinks yu'll git 'un," wheezed poor Jack. "'Twude be
a turble gude job var 'ee tu git a yusband. But doan't 'ee make tu
shar on 'un, Miss Zairy. 'Un du zay as him be turble vond on yu, and
as yu du be playing vast and loose wi' he. That's the ways a young
maid du go on, and zo the young man du slip thru' 'un's vingers."

"Yes, Jack," said Sarah, with unwonted meekness.

She looked round the little unceiled room, open on one side to the
wooden staircase which led to the kitchen below; at the earth-stained
corduroys hanging on a peg; at the brown mug which held Happy Jack's
last meal, and all he cared to take--a thin gruel.

"'Twude be a grand marriage vor the likes o' yu, Miss Zairy, vor the
Crewys du be the yoldest vambly in all Devonsheer, as I've yeard tell;
and yure volk bain't never comed year at arl befar yure grandvather's
time. Eh, what a tale there were tu tell when old Sir Timothy married
Mary Ann! 'Twas a vine scandal vor the volk, zo 'twere; but I wuden't
niver give in tu leaving Youlestone. But doan't 'ee play the vule wi'
Master Peter, Miss Zairy. Take 'un while yu can git 'un, will 'ee? And
be glad tu git 'un. Yu listen tu I, vor I be a turble witty man, and I
be giving of yu gude advice, Miss Zairy."

"I am listening, Jack, and you know I always take your advice."

"Ah! if 'twerent' for the anny-dominy, I'd be tu yure wedding," sighed
Happy Jack, "zame as I were tu Mary Ann's. Zo I wude."

She took his knotted hand, discoloured with the labour of eighty
years, and bade him farewell.

"Thee be a lucky maid," said Happy Jack, closing his eyes.

* * * * *

The tears were yet glistening on Sarah's long lashes, when she met the
doctor on his way to the cottage she had just quitted.

She was in no mood for talking, and would have passed him with a hasty
greeting, but the melancholy and fatigue of his bearing struck her
quick perceptions.

She stopped short, and held out her hand impulsively.

"Dr. Blunderbuss," said Sarah, "did you _very_ much want Peter to find
out that--that he could live without his mother?"

"Has anything happened?" said the doctor; his thin face lighted up
instantly with eager interest and anxiety.

"Only _that_" said Sarah. "You trusted me, so I'm trusting you.
Peter's found out everything. And--and he isn't going to let her
sacrifice her happiness to him, after all. I'll answer for that. So
perhaps, now, you won't say you're sorry you t