y ever since; and if I only knew it
was well with poor Philip, I think I should be too happy. And where is
Philip now?"

"He crossed the lake one night, having took leave of Sir Bale. They
thought he was going to old Trebeck's up the Fells. He likes the
Feltrams, and likes the folk at Mardykes Hall--though those two families
was not always o'er kind to one another. But Trebeck seed nowt o' him,
nor no one else; and what has gone wi' him no one can tell."

"_I_ heard that also," said William with a deep sigh. "But _I_ hoped it
had been cleared up by now, and something happier been known of the poor
fellow by this time. I'd give a great deal to know--I don't know what I
_would_ not give to know--I'm so unhappy about him. And now, my good old
friend, tell your people to get me a chaise, for I must go to Mardykes
Hall; and, first, let me have a room to dress in."

At Mardykes Hall a pale and pretty lady was looking out, alone, from the
stone-shafted drawing-room window across the courtyard and the
balustrade, on which stood many a great stone cup with flowers, whose
leaves were half shed and gone with the winds--emblem of her hopes. The
solemn melancholy of the towering fells, the ripple of the lonely lake,
deepened her sadness.

The unwonted sound of carriage-wheels awoke her from her reverie.

Before the chaise reached the steps, a hand from its window had seized
the handle, the door was thrown open, and William Feltram jumped out.

She was in the hall, she knew not how; and, with a wild scream and a
sob, she threw herself into his arms.

Here at last was an end of the long waiting, the dejection which had
reached almost the point of despair. And like two rescued from
shipwreck, they clung together in an agony of happiness.

William had come back with no very splendid fortune. It was enough, and
only enough, to enable them to marry. Prudent people would have thought
it, very likely, too little. But he was now home in England, with health
unimpaired by his long sojourn in the East, and with intelligence and
energies improved by the discipline of his arduous struggle with
fortune. He reckoned, therefore, upon one way or other adding something
to their income; and he knew that a few hundreds a year would make them
happier than hundreds of thousand could other people.

It was five years since they had parted in France, where a journey of
importance to the Indian firm, whose right hand he was, had brought him.

The