wn all things, that it sometimes appeared even to
us elders as if those three days of bitterness were a mere dream--as if
the year we dreaded had passed as calmly as any other year. Save that
in this interval Ursula's hair had begun to turn from brown to grey;
and John first mentioned, so cursorily that I cannot even now remember
when or where, that slight pain, almost too slight to complain of,
which he said warned him in climbing Enderley Hill that he could not
climb so fast as when he was young. And I returned his smile, telling
him we were evidently growing old men; and must soon set our faces to
descend the hill of life. Easy enough I was in saying this, thinking,
as I often did, with great content, that there was not the faintest
doubt which of us would reach the bottom first.

Yet I was glad to have safely passed my half century of life--glad to
have seen many of John's cares laid to rest, more especially those
external troubles which I have not lately referred to--for, indeed,
they were absorbed and forgotten in the home-troubles that came after.
He had lived down all slanders, as he said he would. Far and near
travelled the story of the day when Jessop's bank was near breaking;
far and near, though secretly--for we found it out chiefly by its
results--poor people whispered the tale of a gentleman who had been
attacked on the high roads, and whose only attempt at bringing the
robbers to justice was to help the widow of one and send the others
safe out of the country, at his own expense, not Government's. None of
these were notable or showy deeds--scarcely one of them got, even under
the disguise of asterisks, into the newspaper; the Norton Bury Mercury,
for its last dying sting, still complained (and very justly) that there
was not a gentleman in the county whose name so seldom headed a charity
subscription as that of John Halifax, Esquire, of Beechwood. But the
right made its way, as, soon or late, the right always does; he
believed his good name was able to defend itself, and it did defend
itself; he had faith in the only victory worth having--the universal
victory of Truth; and Truth conquered at last.

To drive with him across the country--he never carried pistols now,--or
to walk with him, as one day before Edwin's wedding we walked, a goodly
procession, through the familiar streets of Norton Bury, was a
perpetual pleasure to the rest of the family. Everybody knew him,
everybody greeted him, everybody