Mabel, and George Hammond were under the apple-trees
in the garden opposite.

"Look, Mabel! There's Mr. Morgan going to call on Miss Rood," said Lucy
softly.

"Oh, do look, George!" said Mabel eagerly. "That old gentleman has been
paying court to an old maid over in that little house for forty years.
And to think," she added in a lower tone, intended for his private ear,
"what a fuss you make about waiting six months!"

"Humph! You please to forget that it's easier to wait for some things
than for others. Six months of my kind of waiting, I take it, require
more patience than forty years of his--or any other man's," he added,
with increased emphasis.

"Be quiet, sir!" replied Mabel, answering his look of unruly admiration
with one of half pique. "I 'm not a sugar-plum, that's not enjoyed till
it's in the mouth. If you have n't got me now, you 'll never have me. If
being engaged isn't enough, you don't deserve to be married." And then,
seeing the blank expression with which he looked down at her, she
added with a prescient resigned-ness, "I 'm afraid, dear, you 'll be so
disappointed when we 're married, if you find this so tedious."

Lucy had discreetly wandered away, and of how they made it up there were
no witnesses. But it seems likely that they did so, for shortly after
they wandered away together down the darkening street.

Like most of the Plainfield houses, that at which Mr. Morgan turned
in stood well back from the street. At a side window, still further
sheltered from view by a gyringa-bush at the house corner, sat a little
woman with a small, pale face, the still attractive features perceptibly
sharpened by years, of which the half-gray hair bore further testimony.
The eyes, just now fixed absently upon the dusking landscape, were light
gray and a little faded, while around the lips there were crow's-feet,
especially when they were pressed together, as now, in an unsatisfied,
almost pathetic look, evidently habitual to her face when in repose.
There was withal something in her features that so reminded you of Mr.
Morgan that any one conversant with the facts of his life-romance would
have at once inferred--though by just what logic he might not be
able to explain--that this must be Miss Eood. It is well known that
long-wedded couples often gain at length a certain resemblance in
feature and manner; and although these two were not married, yet their
intimacy of a lifetime was perhaps the reason why her f