the young couple personally,
and then I told him that if he would forgive Mr. Ostrander this delay
and allow him to sail with his young bride by the next steamer, I myself
would undertake to advance whatever sums might have been lost by this
change of arrangement.

I did not know then that Mr. Gryce had already made this matter good
with this same gentleman.

The next morning we all took a walk in the lane. (I say nothing about
the night. If I did not choose to sleep, or if I had any cause not to
feel quite as elevated in spirit as the young people about me, there is
surely no reason why I should dwell upon it with you or even apologize
for a weakness which you will regard, I hope, as an exception setting
off my customary strength.)

Now a walk in this lane was an event. To feel at liberty to stroll among
its shadows without fear, to know that the danger had been so located
that we all felt free to inhale the autumn air and to enjoy the beauties
of the place without a thought of peril lurking in its sweetest nooks
and most attractive coverts, gave to this short half-hour a distinctive
delight aptly expressed by Loreen when she said:

"I never knew the place was so beautiful. Why, I think I can be happy
here now." At which Lucetta grew pensive, till I roused her by saying:

"So much for a constitutional, girls. Now we must to work. This house,
as you see it now, has to be prepared for a wedding. William, your
business will be to see that these grounds are put in as good order as
possible in the short time allotted to you. I will bear the expense, and
Loreen----"

But William had a word to say for himself.

"Miss Butterworth," said he, "you're a right good sort of woman, as
Saracen has found out, and we, too, in these last few plaguy days. But
I'm not such a bad lot either, and if I do like my own way, which may
not be other people's way, and if I am sometimes short with the girls
for some of their d--d nonsense, I have a little decency about me, too,
and I promise to fix these grounds, and out of my own money, too. Now
that nine tenths of our income does not have to go abroad, we'll have
chink enough to let us live in a respectable manner once more in a place
where one horse, if he's good enough, will give a fellow a standing and
make him the envy of those who, for some other pesky reasons, may think
themselves called upon to fight shy of him. I don't begrudge the old
place a few dollars, especially as I mean to