o
his arm.

"But I do, my pet, in the person of Benedick the married man. Don't you
think I want to show all the fellows what a stunning little wife I've
got? and all the women I used to flirt with----"

"Did you use to flirt much with them, Phil?"

"You didn't think I flirted with the men, did you? like you did," said
Phil, who was not particular about his grammar. "I want to show you off
a bit. Nell. When we go down to the governor's, there you can be as
domestic as you like. That's the line to take with him, and pays too if
you do it well."

"Oh, don't talk as if you were always calculating for your advantage,"
she said, "for you are not, Phil. You are not a prudent person, but a
horrid, extravagant spendthrift; if you go on chucking sovereigns about
as you did yesterday."

"Well," he said, laughing, "wasn't it well spent? Didn't I make your
Rector open his old eyes, and stop the mouths of the old maids? I don't
throw away sovereigns in a general way, Nell, only when there's a
purpose in it. But I think I did them all finely that time--had them on
toast, eh?"

"You made an impression, if that is what you mean; but I confess I
thought you did it out of kindness, Phil."

"To the Punch and Judy? catch me! Sovereigns ain't plentiful enough for
that. You little exacting thing, ain't you pleased, when I did it to
please you, and get you credit among your friends?"

"It was very kind of you, I'm sure, Phil," she said, very soberly, "but
I should so much rather you had not thought of that. A shilling would
have done just as well and they would have got a bed at the Bull's
Head, and been quite kindly treated. Is this your train coming? It's a
little too soon, I think."

"Thanks for the compliment, Nell. It is really late," he said, looking
at his watch, "but the time flies, don't it, pet, when you and I are
together? Here, you fellow, put my bag in a smoking carriage. And now,
you darling, we've got to part; only for a little time, Nell."

"Only for a week," she said, with a smile and a tear.

"Not so long--a rush along the rail, a blow on the sea, and then back
again; I shall only be a day over there, and then--bless you, Nell.
Good-bye--take care of yourself, my little duck: take care of yourself
for me."

"Good-bye," said Elinor, with a little quiver of her lip. A parting at a
roadside station is a very abrupt affair. The train stops, the passenger
is shoved in, there is a clanging of the doors, and in a mo