he, with his strong northern accent, "I was
thinking of you only this very morning," and the pair shook hands
heartily. John was in an excellent place at the West End. He had done
very well, he said, ever since he had left Battersby, except for the
first year or two, and that, he said, with a screw of the face, had well
nigh broke him.

Ernest asked how this was.

"Why, you see," said John, "I was always main fond of that lass Ellen,
whom you remember running after, Master Ernest, and giving your watch to.
I expect you haven't forgotten that day, have you?" And here he laughed.
"I don't know as I be the father of the child she carried away with her
from Battersby, but I very easily may have been. Anyhow, after I had
left your papa's place a few days I wrote to Ellen to an address we had
agreed upon, and told her I would do what I ought to do, and so I did,
for I married her within a month afterwards. Why, Lord love the man,
whatever is the matter with him?"--for as he had spoken the last few
words of his story Ernest had turned white as a sheet, and was leaning
against the railings.

"John," said my hero, gasping for breath, "are you sure of what you
say--are you quite sure you really married her?"

"Of course I am," said John, "I married her before the registrar at
Letchbury on the 15th of August 1851.

"Give me your arm," said Ernest, "and take me into Piccadilly, and put me
into a cab, and come with me at once, if you can spare time, to Mr
Overton's at the Temple."

CHAPTER LXXVII

I do not think Ernest himself was much more pleased at finding that he
had never been married than I was. To him, however, the shock of
pleasure was positively numbing in its intensity. As he felt his burden
removed, he reeled for the unaccustomed lightness of his movements; his
position was so shattered that his identity seemed to have been shattered
also; he was as one waking up from a horrible nightmare to find himself
safe and sound in bed, but who can hardly even yet believe that the room
is not full of armed men who are about to spring upon him.

"And it is I," he said, "who not an hour ago complained that I was
without hope. It is I, who for weeks have been railing at fortune, and
saying that though she smiled on others she never smiled at me. Why,
never was anyone half so fortunate as I am."

"Yes," said I, "you have been inoculated for marriage, and have
recovered."

"And yet," he said, "I was very fo