y groping for coal. He would not waste his
money nor dirty his fingers. But he thanked me for my friendly zeal, and
rewarded me with ten shillings."

"Oh!" cried Walter, and hid his face in his hands. As for Mary, she put
her hand gently but quietly on Hope's shoulder, as if to protect him from
such insults.

"Why, children," said Hope, pleased at their sympathy, but too manly to
hunt for it, "it was more than he thought the information worth, and I
assure you it was a blessed boon to me. I had spent my last shilling, and
there I was trapesing across the island on a wild-goose chase with my
reaping-hook and my fiddle; and my poor little Grace, that I--that I--"

Mary's hand went a moment to his other shoulder, and she murmured through
her tears, "You have got _me_."

Then Hope was happy again, and indeed the simplest woman can find in a
moment the very word that is balm of Gilead to a sorrowful man.

However, Hope turned it off and continued his theme. The jury, he said,
would pounce on that ten shillings as the Colonel's true estimate of his
coal, and he would figure in the case as a dog in the manger who grudged
Bartley the profits of a risky investment he had merely sneered at and
not opposed, until it turned out well; and also disregarded the interests
of the little community to whom the mine was a boon. "No," said Hope;
"tell your lawyer that I am Bartley's servant, but love equity. I have
proposed to Bartley to follow a wonderful seam of coal under Colonel
Clifford's park. We have no business there. So if the belligerents will
hear reason I will make Bartley pay a royalty on every ton that comes to
the surface from any part of the mine; and that will be L1200 a year to
the Cliffords. Take this to the lawyer and tell him to unfix that hero's
bayonet, or he will charge at the double and be the death of his own
money--and yours."

Walter threw up his hands with amazement and admiration. "What a
head!" said he.

"Fiddledee!" said Mary; "what a heart!"

"In a word, a phoenix," said Hope, dryly. "Praise is sweet, especially
behind one's back. So pray go on, unless you have something better to
say to each other;" and Hope retired briskly into his office. But when
the lovers took him at his word, and began to strut up and down hand in
hand, and murmur love's music into each other's ears, he could not take
his eyes off them, and his thoughts were sad. She had only known that
young fellow a few months, yet she love