give me no hint,
and thus permit Jack to surprise me into giving away something that I
ought to have kept him on the rack for a month at least about before
conferring?"

Grace smiled and said: "Are you quite satisfied, Jack?"

"Quite," he replied.

"And are you as happy as you deserve to be, Rose?"

"Oh, Grace," said Rose, and then the two young women both cried and
embraced each other until Jack gently separated them, and said: "Come,
we must find Jim. Jim is my friend. His judgment is perfect, and I must
submit this business to him."

"Mr. Sedgwick has gone back to the hotel," said Grace, and a serious
look was in her eyes as she spoke. But in a moment she smiled and said:
"When I told him where you were and who was with you, he laughed and
said: 'It is liable to be a case of working after hours. When the young
lady succeeds in extricating herself, tell Jack, please, that I have gone
out to take in London, and will see him at the hotel when he finds time
to call.'"

"And who is Mr. Sedgwick?" asked Rose.

"The best and noblest man in all this world," replied Jack.

"Oh, Jack!" said Rose.

"It is true, all the same, my sorceress," said Browning. "I have seen him
tested. He has been my close companion for lo! these many months."

"I am jealous of him," said Rose. "But why did he run away? I want to
know all your friends."

"I suspect the truth is he left out of consideration for you and myself,"
said Browning. "He knew how I felt, and he hoped I would not be
disappointed, and I suspect he thought the sacredness of our joy ought
not to be disturbed."

"Very fine, of course," said Grace; "very thoughtful and considerate, but
why did he not stop to ask himself if it was quite fair to leave me all
alone."

"You are right, Gracie," said Browning, "and this act of his shows an
absence of mind on his part that I did not expect."

Then all laughed, but Grace blushed a little while she laughed.

Then Mrs. Hamlin came in. She warmly congratulated the happy pair.

They strolled into the sitting-room, and soon after the mail was brought
in. The first things the girls seized upon were the papers from
Devonshire, for they were like other people. Men and women live in a
place for years, and daily express the belief that the home paper is the
worst specimen they ever saw, but let one of them absent himself or
herself for a week, and the same newspaper from the old home is the one
thing they want above all others. G