subject to desertion about her, as she remembered
that in giving up Mr. Gilmore she must also give up the Fenwicks. She
could not hope to go to Bullhampton again, at least for many a long
day. She would be very much alone if her new brother were to leave
her now. On the morning after his arrival he came up to them at
Uphill, and told them that the matter was almost settled. Messrs.
Block and Curling had declared that it was as good as settled; the
money would be saved, and there would be, out of the L20,000 which
he had inherited, something over L4000 for him; so that he need not
return to India. He was in very high spirits, and did not speak a
word of his father's iniquities.

"Oh, Walter, what a joy!" said Mary, with the tears streaming from
her eyes.

He took her by both her hands, and kissed her forehead. At that
moment Aunt Sarah was not in the room.

"I am so very, very happy," she said, pressing her little hands
against his.

Why should he not kiss her? Was he not her brother? And then,
before he went, she remembered she had something special to tell
him;--something to ask him. Would he not walk with her that evening?
Of course he would walk with her.

"Mary, dear," said her aunt, putting her little arm round her niece's
waist, and embracing her, "don't fall in love with Walter."

"How can you say anything so foolish, Aunt Sarah?"

"It would be very foolish to do so."

"You don't understand how completely different it is. Do you think
I could be so intimate with him as I am if anything of the kind were
possible?"

"I do not know how that may be."

"Do not begrudge it me because I have found a cousin that I can love
almost as I would a brother. There has never been anybody yet for
whom I could have that sort of feeling."

Aunt Sarah, whatever she might think, had not the heart to repeat her
caution; and Mary, quite happy and contented with herself, put on her
hat to run down the hill and meet her cousin at the great gates of
the Lowtown Rectory. Why should he be dragged up the hill, to escort
a cousin down again? This arrangement had, therefore, been made
between them.

For the first mile or two the talk was all about Messrs. Block and
Curling and the money. Captain Marrable was so full of his own
purposes, and so well contented that so much should be saved to him
out of the fortune he had lost, that he had, perhaps, forgotten that
Mary required more advice. But when they had come to the spot on