he now had ceased to desire.

But she went.

There were two letters.

One was from the bank at St. Launce's, in which she had a small private
deposit--probably something about interest. She put that in her
pocket for a moment, and going indoors and upstairs to be safer from
observation, tremblingly opened Stephen's.

What was this he said to her?

She was to go to the St. Launce's Bank and take a sum of money which
they had received private advices to pay her.

The sum was two hundred pounds.

There was no check, order, or anything of the nature of guarantee. In
fact the information amounted to this: the money was now in the St.
Launce's Bank, standing in her name.

She instantly opened the other letter. It contained a deposit-note from
the bank for the sum of two hundred pounds which had that day been
added to her account. Stephen's information, then, was correct, and the
transfer made.

'I have saved this in one year,' Stephen's letter went on to say, 'and
what so proper as well as pleasant for me to do as to hand it over to
you to keep for your use? I have plenty for myself, independently of
this. Should you not be disposed to let it lie idle in the bank, get
your father to invest it in your name on good security. It is a little
present to you from your more than betrothed. He will, I think, Elfride,
feel now that my pretensions to your hand are anything but the dream of
a silly boy not worth rational consideration.'

With a natural delicacy, Elfride, in mentioning her father's marriage,
had refrained from all allusion to the pecuniary resources of the lady.

Leaving this matter-of-fact subject, he went on, somewhat after his
boyish manner:

'Do you remember, darling, that first morning of my arrival at your
house, when your father read at prayers the miracle of healing the sick
of the palsy--where he is told to take up his bed and walk? I do, and I
can now so well realize the force of that passage. The smallest piece of
mat is the bed of the Oriental, and yesterday I saw a native perform the
very action, which reminded me to mention it. But you are better read
than I, and perhaps you knew all this long ago....One day I bought some
small native idols to send home to you as curiosities, but afterwards
finding they had been cast in England, made to look old, and shipped
over, I threw them away in disgust.

'Speaking of this reminds me that we are obliged to import all our
house-building ironwork from E