the past into forgetfulness, and the future into a union more
sacred than esteem.

A week hence, and Simon Deg was the son-in-law of Mr. Spires. Though Mr.
Spires had misunderstood Simon, and Simon had borne the aspect of
opposition to his old friend, in defense of conscientious principle,
the wife and daughter of the manufacturer had always understood him, and
secretly looked forward to some day of recognition and reunion.

Simon Deg was now the richest man in Stockington. His mother was still
living to enjoy his elevation. She had been his excellent and wise
housekeeper, and she continued to occupy that post still.

Twenty-five years afterward, when the worthy old Spires was dead, and
Simon Deg had himself two sons attained to manhood; when he had five
times been mayor of Stockington, and had been knighted on the
presentation of a loyal address; still his mother was living to see it;
and William Watson, the shoemaker, was acting as a sort of orderly at Sir
Simon's chief manufactory. He occupied the lodge, and walked about, and
saw that all was safe, and moving on as it should do.

It was amazing how the most plebeian name of Simon Deg had slid, under
the hands of the heralds, into the really aristocratical one of Sir Simon
Degge. They had traced him up a collateral kinship, spite of his own
consciousness, to a baronet of the same name of the county of Stafford,
and had given him a coat of arms that was really astonishing.

It was some years before this, that Sir Roger Rockville had breathed his
last. His title and estate had fallen into litigation. Owing to two
generations having passed without any issue of the Rockville family
except the one son and heir, the claims, though numerous, were so mingled
with obscuring circumstance, and so equally balanced, that the lawyers
raised quibbles and difficulties enough to keep the property in Chancery,
till they had not only consumed all the ready money and rental, but had
made frightful inroads into the estate itself. To save the remnant, the
contending parties came to a compromise. A neighboring squire, whose
grandfather had married a Rockville, was allowed to secure the title, on
condition that the rest carried off the residuum of the estate. The woods
and lands of Rockville were announced for sale!

It was at this juncture that old William Watson reminded Sir Simon Degge
of a conversation in the great grove of Rockville, which they had held at
the time that Sir Roger w