but he knocked his elbow against that part of the window
which was quite on the other side of Miss La Creevy; and it is clear
that it could have no business there.

'Do laugh,' said Tim, 'or I'll cry.'

'Why should you cry?' asked Miss La Creevy, smiling.

'Because I'm happy too,' said Tim. 'We are both happy, and I should like
to do as you do.'

Surely, there never was a man who fidgeted as Tim must have done then;
for he knocked the window again--almost in the same place--and Miss La
Creevy said she was sure he'd break it.

'I knew,' said Tim, 'that you would be pleased with this scene.'

'It was very thoughtful and kind to remember me,' returned Miss La
Creevy. 'Nothing could have delighted me half so much.'

Why on earth should Miss La Creevy and Tim Linkinwater have said all
this in a whisper? It was no secret. And why should Tim Linkinwater have
looked so hard at Miss La Creevy, and why should Miss La Creevy have
looked so hard at the ground?

'It's a pleasant thing,' said Tim, 'to people like us, who have passed
all our lives in the world alone, to see young folks that we are fond
of, brought together with so many years of happiness before them.'

'Ah!' cried the little woman with all her heart, 'that it is!'

'Although,' pursued Tim 'although it makes one feel quite solitary and
cast away. Now don't it?'

Miss La Creevy said she didn't know. And why should she say she didn't
know? Because she must have known whether it did or not.

'It's almost enough to make us get married after all, isn't it?' said
Tim.

'Oh, nonsense!' replied Miss La Creevy, laughing. 'We are too old.'

'Not a bit,' said Tim; 'we are too old to be single. Why shouldn't we
both be married, instead of sitting through the long winter evenings by
our solitary firesides? Why shouldn't we make one fireside of it, and
marry each other?'

'Oh, Mr Linkinwater, you're joking!'

'No, no, I'm not. I'm not indeed,' said Tim. 'I will, if you will. Do,
my dear!'

'It would make people laugh so.'

'Let 'em laugh,' cried Tim stoutly; 'we have good tempers I know, and
we'll laugh too. Why, what hearty laughs we have had since we've known
each other!'

'So we have,' cried' Miss La Creevy--giving way a little, as Tim
thought.

'It has been the happiest time in all my life; at least, away from the
counting-house and Cheeryble Brothers,' said Tim. 'Do, my dear! Now say
you will.'

'No, no, we mustn't think of it,' returned Miss La Cre