d say something of silly
girls. Yes--and though the rich widower bailiff had said sundry civil
things of Miss Ellen being well brought up and notable--'For,' as Mrs.
King wrote to Matilda, 'I had rather see Ellen married to a good
religious man than to any one, and I do not know one I can be so sure of
as Paul, nor one that is so like a son to me; and if he has no friends
belonging to him, that is better than bad friends.' And Ellen herself,
from looking on him as a mere boy, as she had done at their first
acquaintance, had come to thinking no one ever had been so wise or so
clever, far less so good, certainly not so fond of her--so her answer was
no great wonder. Then they were to be prudent, and wait for some
dependence; and so they did till Mr. Shaw recommended Paul Blackthorn for
Hazleford school, where there is a beautiful new house for the master, so
that he will have no longer to live in lodgings, and be 'done for,' as
the saying is. Harold tells Ellen that he is afraid that without her he
won't wash above once in four months; but however that may be, she is
convinced that the new school-house will be lost on him, and that in
spite of all his fine arithmetic, his fifty pounds will never go so far
for one as for two; and so she did not turn a deaf ear to his entreaties
that she would not send him alone to Hazleford.

They wanted very much to get 'Mother' to come and live with them, give up
the post-office, and let Harold live in Mr. Cope's house; but Mother has
a certain notion that Harold's stately looks and perfect health might not
last, if she were not always on the watch to put him into dry clothes if
he comes in damp, and such like 'little fidgets,' as he calls them, which
he would not attend to from any one but Mother. So she will keep on the
shop and the post-office, and try to break in that uncouth girl of John
Farden's to be a tidy little maid; and Mr. and Mrs. Blackthorn will spend
their holidays with her and Harold. She may come to them yet in time,
if, as Paul predicts, Master Harold takes up with Lucy at the Grange--but
there's time enough to think of that; and even if he should, it would
take many years to make Lucy into such a Mrs. King as she who is now very
busy over the dinner at home, but thinking about a good deal besides the
dinner.

There! Paul and Ellen have stood and knelt in an earnest reverent
spirit, making their vows to one another and before God, and His blessing
has been spoke