good cheer, vaguely hinted that he knew who the tramp
was; but from the singular reticence he has always shown in the matter,
and from the prosperity which has attended his constabulary career, it
may well be believed that he has a life interest in keeping his counsel.
Indeed as it is nearly ten years since Mr. Reid buried the poor tramp, it
is possible that Mr. Gall's memory may be already failing in regard to
events which occurred at so remote a date.

It was but an incident, though it was perhaps the only incident of any
interest which ever occurred in Billingsfield; but until it reached its
termination it agitated the lives of the quiet people at the vicarage,
at the cottage and at the Hall as violently as human nature can be moved.
It was long, too, before those who had witnessed the scene of Goddard's
death could shake off the impression of those awful last moments. Yet
time does all things wonderful and in the course of not many months there
remained of Goddard's memory only a great sense of relief that he was no
longer alive. Mary Goddard, indeed, was very ill for a long time; and but
for Mrs. Ambrose's tender care of her, might have followed her husband
within a few weeks of his death. But the good lady never left her, until
she was herself again--absolutely herself, saving that as time passed and
her deep wounds healed her sorrows were forgotten, and she seemed to
bloom out into a second youth.

So it came to pass that within two years Charles Juxon once more asked
her to be his wife. She hesitated long--fully half an hour, the squire
thought; but in the end she put out her small hand and laid it in his,
and thanked God that a man so generous and true, and whom she so honestly
loved, was to be her husband as well as her friend and protector. Charles
James Juxon smoothed his hair with his other hand, and his blue eyes were
a little moistened.

"God bless you, Mary," he said; and that was all.

Then the Reverend Augustin Ambrose married them in the church of Saint
Mary's, between Christmas and New Year's Day; and the wedding-party
consisted of Mrs. Ambrose and Eleanor Goddard and John Short, Fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge. And again years passed by, and Nellie grew in
beauty as John grew in reputation; and Nellie had both brothers and
sisters, as she had longed to have, and to her, their father was as her
own; so that there was much harmony and peace and goodwill towards men
in Billingsfield Hall. John