d some
time, though it must be admitted that the fact that he had asked her
to marry him and been refused did not come much into his
consideration. He had not altered his mind about that proposal, and he
did not imagine she had altered hers; his devotion and her
indifference were definite settled facts which would remain as long as
either of them remained, but there was nothing embarrassing in them
to him. At last he decided that he would go, and it was the blue
daffodil which decided him.

He had never heard what Julia had done with the bulb he had given her.
It was only reasonable to think she had sold it, seeing it was for the
sake of money she had wanted it, but no whisper of any such thing had
reached him or his father. He longed to know about it, to hear the
name of the man who had his treasure; for whom, in all probability, it
was blooming now. It was some connoisseur he was nearly certain; Julia
would not have sold it to another grower. He had not lain any such
condition on her, but she would not have done that; she knew too well
what it meant to him; he never doubted her in that matter, his faith
was of too simple a kind. Still he determined to go and see her,
partly that he might hear the name of the man who bought the blue
daffodil, partly because he wanted to and remembered that Julia, in
the old days, did not seem of the kind to be upset by unexpected
visitors and similar small domestic accidents.

It was a hot-dinner Sunday at the cottage. These occurred alternately;
on the in between Sundays Julia, supported by Johnny and the Captain,
went to church. On those sacred to hot dinners she stayed at home and
did the cooking, the Captain staying with her. Mr. Gillat used to also
in the winter, but lately, during the spring, he had been induced to
teach in the Sunday school, and now went every Sunday to the village,
first to teach and afterwards to conduct his class to church.

It was Mr. Stevens, the Rector of Halgrave, who had made this
surprising suggestion to Mr. Gillat. He, good man, had in the course
of time been to see his parishioners at the remote cottage, grinding
along the deep sandy road on his heavy old tricycle; but it was not
during the visit that he thought of Johnny as a teacher; it was when
he made further acquaintance with him at Halgrave. Johnny was the
member of the party who went most often to the village shop; he liked
the expedition, it gave him a feeling of importance; he also liked