"before we hate one another. I tell
you I have been robbed by the father and jilted by the son. Good-by,
Martin."

"Good-by, Julia," I replied; but I still lingered, hoping she would
speak to me again. I was anxious to hear what she would do against my
father. She looked at me fully and angrily, and, as I did not move, she
swept out of the room, with a dignity which I had never seen in her
before. I retreated toward the house-door, but could not make good my
escape without encountering Johanna.

"Well, Martin?" she said.

"It is all wrong," I answered. "Julia persists in it that I am jilting
her."

"All the world will think you have behaved very badly," she said.

"I suppose so," I replied; "but don't you think so, Johanna."

She shook her head in silence, and closed the hall-door after me. Many a
door in Guernsey would be shut against me as soon as this was known.

I had to go round to the stables to find Madam. The man had evidently
expected me to stay a long while, for her saddle-girths were loosened,
and the bit out of her mouth, that she might enjoy a liberal feed of
oats. Captain Carey came up tome as I was buckling the girths.

"Well, Martin?" he asked, exactly as Johanna had done before him.

"All wrong," I repeated.

"Dear! dear!" he said, in his mildest tones, and with his hand resting
affectionately on my shoulder; "I wish I had lost the use of my eyes or
tongue the other day, I am vexed to death that I found out your secret."

"Perhaps I should not have found it out myself," I said, "and it is
better now than after."

"So it is, my boy; so it is," he rejoined. "Between ourselves, Julia is
a little too old for you. Cheer up! she is a good girl, and will get
over it, and be friends again with you by-and-by. I will do all I can to
bring that about. If Olivia is only as good as she is handsome, you'll
be happier with her than with poor Julia."

He patted my back with a friendliness that cheered me, while his last
words sent the blood bounding through my veins. I rode home again, Sark
lying in full view before me; and, in spite of the darkness of my
prospects, I felt intensely glad to be free to win my Olivia.

Four days passed without any sign from either Julia or my father. I
wrote to him detailing my interview with her, but no reply came. My
mother and I had the house to ourselves; and, in spite of her frettings,
we enjoyed considerable pleasure during the temporary lull. There were,
however,