y. It was generally thought about the place that Miss Lily
was Hopkins's favourite, though he showed it chiefly by snubbing her
more frequently than he snubbed her sister.

Lily had evidently intended to return home through the front door;
but she changed her purpose before she reached the house, and made
her way slowly back through the churchyard, and by the gate of the
Great House, and by the garden at the back of it, till she crossed
the little bridge. But on the bridge she rested awhile, leaning
against the railing as she had often leant with him, and thinking of
all that had passed since that July day on which she had first met
him. On no spot had he so often told her of his love as on this, and
nowhere had she so eagerly sworn to him that she would be his own
dutiful loving wife.

"And by God's help so I will," she said to herself, as she walked
firmly up to the house. "He has gone, mamma," she said, as she
entered the breakfast-room. "And now we'll go back to our work-a-day
ways; it has been all Sunday for me for the last six weeks."

CHAPTER XVI

Mr Crosbie Meets an Old Clergyman on His Way to Courcy Castle

For the first mile or two of their journey Crosbie and Bernard Dale
sat, for the most part, silent in their gig. Lily, as she ran down
to the churchyard corner and stood there looking after them with
her loving eyes, had not been seen by them. But the spirit of her
devotion was still strong upon them both, and they felt that it
would not be well to strike at once into any ordinary topic of
conversation. And, moreover, we may presume that Crosbie did feel
much at thus parting from such a girl as Lily Dale, with whom he
had lived in close intercourse for the last six weeks, and whom he
loved with all his heart,--with all the heart that he had for such
purposes. In those doubts as to his marriage which had troubled him
he had never expressed to himself any disapproval of Lily. He had not
taught himself to think that she was other than he would have her be,
that he might thus give himself an excuse for parting from her. Not
as yet, at any rate, had he had recourse to that practice, so common
with men who wish to free themselves from the bonds with which they
have permitted themselves to be bound. Lily had been too sweet to
his eyes, to his touch, to all his senses for that. He had enjoyed
too keenly the pleasure of being with her, and of hearing her tell
him that she loved him, to allow of his bein