derstanding with one another, their way was made perfectly plain
by those in authority.

Joan looked shyly at Paul as he crossed the kitchen with some
pleasant word of congratulation, and said:

"In faith, kind sir, I think we owe it all to you. Will tells me it
was you who sent him hither today. He had got some foolish notion
in his head which kept him away; but he said it was you who bid him
take heart and try his luck."

"And very good luck he has had, it seems," answered Paul, laughing.
"And so the marriage is to be next week?"

"My father and mother wish it so," answered the blushing Joan; "and
my mother has long had all my household linen spun against the
wedding day. I trust you will stay, and your kinsman also.
Perchance you have never before seen a rustic wedding."

"Not for many years now," answered Paul, with a smile and a sigh;
"and I would fain be a witness of yours, fair mistress. But I must
ask my young companion there. We have linked our lives together for
the nonce."

But young Edward was perfectly willing to be the farmer's guest for
awhile. Nothing could better have fitted in with his own wishes
than to have stayed in such unquestioned fashion beneath the roof
of one of his humble subjects. At the supper table that night he
won all hearts by the grace of his manners, the sweetness of his
smiles, his ready courtesy to all, and the brilliant sallies that
escaped his lips which set the whole table sometimes in a roar. He
possessed that ready adaptability to circumstances which is often
an attribute of the highest birth. The motherly heart of Mistress
Devenish went out to him at once, and she would fain have known
something of his history, and how it came that so fair and gentle a
youth was wandering thus alone in the wide world.

Paul had told her all his story without the least reserve; but this
kinsman of his was more reticent, and if asked a question,
contrived to turn the edge off it without appearing to avoid giving
a direct answer. But Mistress Devenish was acute enough to perceive
that he did not intend to speak of his own past; and noting the
unconscious deference paid by Paul to one whom seniority would have
given him the right to dictate to and lead, she came to the
conclusion that, kinsfolk or no, the newcomer was of a more exalted
rank than his comrade, and that some romantic history attached to
him, as it did only too often, to wanderers in those days. Her
interest in him only deep