market. Looking up the sunny street, she saw Will approaching, and the
little cloud of sadness which Gethin's genial smile had banished for a
time, returned, bringing with it a pucker on the brows and a droop at
the corners of her mouth.

"Well, indeed," she soliloquised, "there's grand Will is looking, with
his gloves and shining boots; quite like a gentleman. 'Tis not only me
he will have to say good-bye to soon, I am thinking, but to all at
Garthowen."

Her thoughts were interrupted by his arrival. "Art still here, Morva?"
he said; "I thought thee wouldst have gone long ago."

"Only just now I have sold my brooms. There's Jacob the Mill, now I
will go."

Will looked at the cart uneasily as it rumbled up the street; already
he was beginning to be ashamed of his rustic surroundings.

With keen sensitiveness Morva read his thoughts.

"Nay, there's no need for you to help me, Will. I am used to the mill
cart, and indeed to goodness, 'twould not suit with gloves and shining
boots to be helping a girl into a red cart."

"Twt, nonsense," said Will irritably; but he nevertheless allowed her
to leave him, with a wave of her hand, and an amused twinkle in her eye.

As she hurried to catch the cart, he stood a moment moodily looking
after her, his better nature prompting him to follow and help her, but
it was too late; already the brilliant vehicle, with Morva and the
burly Jacob sitting in it side by side, was swallowed up by the crowd
of market people and cattle, and Will turned on his heel with a look of
vexation on his face.

The market was at its liveliest, the sunny air laden with a babel of
sounds. Men and women chattered and chaffered, pigs shrieked, sheep
bleated, and cattle lowed, but Will scarcely noticed the familiar
sounds. A light step and a soft voice, however, attracted his
attention, and he saw approaching him two girls, who evidently belonged
to a different class from those whose simple ways we have hitherto
followed. One was a lady of very ordinary appearance, but the other he
recognised as Miss Vaughan of Nantmyny, a young lady whose beauty and
pleasant manners were the frequent theme of the countryside gossip,
"and no wonder," he thought, "she _is_ pretty!"

"Ah! what a pity!" she was saying to her friend, who was evidently a
young housekeeper intent upon her purchases, "the brooms are all gone!
we're too late!"

Will walked away hastily, lest standing upon that spot he might appear
t