heavy stone beyond
all the marks of the Phaeacians:

"My dearest Child,

"I need not speak now of the weary hours of suspense which I passed in
waiting for your letter. They are over, and all is sunshine after the
clouds. I need not tell you how my heart beat when I saw an envelope
with your address, nor how eagerly my fingers tore it open, for now
all is happiness. Thank you, a thousand times thank you for your
letter; it is like you, all candour, all kindness, and all truth. Put
aside your scruples; everything that you say is not a featherweight in
the balance; do not trouble about your name in the past, for you will
have a new name in the future. It is not I, but you, who overlook
obstacles, for have you not overlooked all the years that lie between
your age and mine? I have but a moment to scribble these lines; you
must forgive their weakness, and take for said all that should be
said. I shall be with you to-morrow morning, and till then am, in all
love and devotion,

"Yours,

"Blandamer."

He did not even read it through before he sealed it up, for he was in a
hurry to get back to Eugenid and to the "Aristeia" of the heathens
martyred under Honorius.

Two days later, Miss Joliffe put on her Sunday mantle and bonnet in the
middle of the week, and went down to the Market Place to call on her
cousin the pork-butcher. Her attire at once attracted attention. The
only justification for such extravagance would be some parish function
or festivity, and nothing of that sort could be going on without the
knowledge of the churchwarden's family. Nor was it only the things
which she wore, but the manner in which she wore them, that was so
remarkable. As she entered the parlour at the back of the shop, where
the pork-butcher's lady and daughters were sitting, they thought that
they had never seen their cousin look so well dressed. She had lost the
pinched, perplexed, down-trodden air which had overcast her later years;
there was in her face a serenity and content which communicated itself
in some mysterious way even to her apparel.

"Cousin Euphemia looks quite respectable this morning," whispered the
younger to the elder daughter; and they had to examine her closely
before they convinced themselves that only a piece of mauve ribbon in
her bonnet was new, and that the coat and dress were just the same as
they had seen every Sunday for two years past.

With "nods and becks