city of gladness was not conspicuous in
Johns. 'Not at all,' he said, in a very subdued tone. ''Tis a bad job;
she won't have me.'

Darton held his breath till he said with treacherous solicitude, 'Try
again--'tis coyness.'

'O no,' said Johns decisively. 'There's been none of that. We talked it
over dozens of times in the most fair and square way. She tells me
plainly, I don't suit her. 'Twould be simply annoying her to ask her
again. Ah, Charles, you threw a prize away when you let her slip five
years ago.'

'I did--I did,' said Darton.

He returned from that auction with a new set of feelings in play. He had
certainly made a surprising mistake in thinking Johns his successful
rival. It really seemed as if he might hope for Sally after all.

This time, being rather pressed by business, Darton had recourse to pen-
and-ink, and wrote her as manly and straightforward a proposal as any
woman could wish to receive. The reply came promptly:-

'DEAR MR. DARTON,--I am as sensible as any woman can be of the
goodness that leads you to make me this offer a second time. Better
women than I would be proud of the honour, for when I read your nice
long speeches on mangold-wurzel, and such like topics, at the
Casterbridge Farmers' Club, I do feel it an honour, I assure you. But
my answer is just the same as before. I will not try to explain what,
in truth, I cannot explain--my reasons; I will simply say that I must
decline to be married to you. With good wishes as in former times, I
am, your faithful friend,

'SALLY HALL.'

Darton dropped the letter hopelessly. Beyond the negative, there was
just a possibility of sarcasm in it--'nice long speeches on
mangold-wurzel' had a suspicious sound. However, sarcasm or none, there
was the answer, and he had to be content.

He proceeded to seek relief in a business which at this time engrossed
much of his attention--that of clearing up a curious mistake just current
in the county, that he had been nearly ruined by the recent failure of a
local bank. A farmer named Darton had lost heavily, and the similarity
of name had probably led to the error. Belief in it was so persistent
that it demanded several days of letter-writing to set matters straight,
and persuade the world that he was as solvent as ever he had been in his
life. He had hardly concluded this worrying task when, to his delight,
another letter arrived in the handwriting of Sa