r me!--Lady Constantine's--ah, how interesting!' Swithin paused
abstractedly for a moment, then stepped back again to the stile, while he
stood watching the little boy out of sight.

'I can never venture out of doors now without sweets in my pocket,'
continued the good-natured vicar: 'and the result is that I meet that
young man more frequently on my rounds than any other of my
parishioners.'

St. Cleeve was silent, and they turned into Welland Lane, where their
paths presently diverged, and Swithin was left to pursue his way alone.
He might have accompanied the vicar yet further, and gone straight to
Welland House; but it would have been difficult to do so then without
provoking inquiry. It was easy to go there now: by a cross path he could
be at the mansion almost as soon as by the direct road. And yet Swithin
did not turn; he felt an indescribable reluctance to see Viviette. He
could not exactly say why. True, before he knew how the land lay it
might be awkward to attempt to call: and this was a sufficient excuse for
postponement.

In this mood he went on, following the direct way to his grandmother's
homestead. He reached the garden-gate, and, looking into the bosky basin
where the old house stood, saw a graceful female form moving before the
porch, bidding adieu to some one within the door.

He wondered what creature of that mould his grandmother could know, and
went forward with some hesitation. At his approach the apparition
turned, and he beheld, developed into blushing womanhood, one who had
once been known to him as the village maiden Tabitha Lark. Seeing
Swithin, and apparently from an instinct that her presence would not be
desirable just then, she moved quickly round into the garden.

The returned traveller entered the house, where he found awaiting him
poor old Mrs. Martin, to whose earthly course death stood rather as the
asymptote than as the end. She was perceptibly smaller in form than when
he had left her, and she could see less distinctly.

A rather affecting greeting followed, in which his grandmother murmured
the words of Israel: '"Now let me die, since I have seen thy face,
because thou art yet alive."'

The form of Hannah had disappeared from the kitchen, that ancient servant
having been gathered to her fathers about six months before, her place
being filled by a young girl who knew not Joseph. They presently chatted
with much cheerfulness, and his grandmother said, 'Have you hea