han a child, when all is said. But for my part, as far as I can
understand what people mean by it, I fancy I must be what they call in
love. I do not wish to be held as committing myself; for I may be wrong;
but that is how I believe things are with me. And if Miss Marjory should
feel any otherwise on her part, mayhap she would be so kind as shake her
head.'

Marjory was silent, and gave no sign that she had heard.

'How is that, parson?' asked Will.

'The girl must speak,' replied the parson, laying down his pipe. 'Here's
our neighbour who says he loves you, Madge. Do you love him, ay or no?'

'I think I do,' said Marjory, faintly.

'Well then, that's all that could be wished!' cried Will, heartily. And
he took her hand across the table, and held it a moment in both of his
with great satisfaction.

'You must marry,' observed the parson, replacing his pipe in his mouth.

'Is that the right thing to do, think you?' demanded Will.

'It is indispensable,' said the parson.

'Very well,' replied the wooer.

Two or three days passed away with great delight to Will, although a
bystander might scarce have found it out. He continued to take his meals
opposite Marjory, and to talk with her and gaze upon her in her father's
presence; but he made no attempt to see her alone, nor in any other way
changed his conduct towards her from what it had been since the
beginning. Perhaps the girl was a little disappointed, and perhaps not
unjustly; and yet if it had been enough to be always in the thoughts of
another person, and so pervade and alter his whole life, she might have
been thoroughly contented. For she was never out of Will's mind for an
instant. He sat over the stream, and watched the dust of the eddy, and
the poised fish, and straining weeds; he wandered out alone into the
purple even, with all the blackbirds piping round him in the wood; he
rose early in the morning, and saw the sky turn from grey to gold, and
the light leap upon the hill-tops; and all the while he kept wondering if
he had never seen such things before, or how it was that they should look
so different now. The sound of his own mill-wheel, or of the wind among
the trees, confounded and charmed his heart. The most enchanting
thoughts presented themselves unbidden in his mind. He was so happy that
he could not sleep at night, and so restless, that he could hardly sit
still out of her company. And yet it seemed as if he avoided her rather
t