gs to her bow was not easily to be foregone, and thus, though
she really loved the farmer, she did not discourage the gentleman. He,
on his part, finding after a while that although she allowed him to talk
to her, and even to visit her at the cottage, and sometimes (when she
knew the young farmer was at market) go for a walk with him, and once
even came and went over his grand mansion, still finding that it was
all talk, and that his suit got no further, he presently bethought him
of diamonds.

He gave her a most beautiful diamond locket, which he had had down all
fresh and brilliant from London. Now this was the beginning of the
mischief. She accepted it in a moment of folly, and wished afterwards
ten times that she had refused, but having once put it on, it looked so
lovely she could not send it back. She could not openly wear it, lest
her lover should see it, but every morning she put it on indoors, and
frequently glanced in the glass.

Nor is it any use to find fault with her; for in the first place she has
been dead many years, and in the second she was then very young, very
beautiful, and living quite alone in the world with an old woman. Now
her lover, notwithstanding the sweet assurances she gave him of her
faithfulness, and despite the soft kisses he had in abundance every day
in the orchard, soft as the bloom of the apple-trees, could not quite
recover his peace of mind. He did not laugh as he used to do. He was
restless, and the oneness of his mind was gone. Oneness of mind does not
often last long into life, but while it lasts everything is bright. He
had now always a second thought, a doubt behind, which clouded his face
and brought a line into his forehead.

After a time his mother, observing his depression, began to accuse
herself of unkindness, and at last resolved to stand no longer in the
way of the marriage. She determined to quit the house in which she had
lived ever since she came to it a happy bride half-a-century before.
Having made up her mind, that very morning she walked along the footpath
to the young lady's cottage, intending to atone for her former
unkindness, and to bring the girl back to lunch, and thus surprise her
son when he came in from the field.

She had even made up her mind to put up with the cold reception she
would probably meet with, nor to reply if any hard words were used
towards her. Thus thinking, she lifted the latch, as country people do
not use much ceremony, and step