friend
obstinate. Mary, who knew the inside of her friend's mind very
clearly, and who loved and respected her friend, could hardly fix her
own mind. During the past night it had been fixed, or nearly fixed,
two different ways. She had first determined that she would refuse
her lover,--as to which resolve, for some hours or so, she had been
very firm; then that she would accept him,--as to which she had
ever, when most that way inclined, entertained some doubt as to the
possibility of her uttering that word "Yes."

"If it be that other women don't love better than I love him, I
wonder that they ever get married at all," she said to herself.

She was told that she was wrong to keep the man in suspense, and she
believed it. Had she not been so told, she would have thought that
some further waiting would have been of the three alternatives the
best.

"I shall be upstairs with the bairns," said Mrs. Fenwick, as she left
the dining-room after lunch, "so that if you prefer the garden to the
drawing-room, it will be free."

"Oh dear, how solemn and ceremonious you make it."

"It is solemn, Mary; I don't know how anything can be more solemn,
short of going to heaven or the other place. But I really don't see
why there should be any doubt or difficulty."

There was something in the tone in which these words were said which
almost made Mary Lowther again decide against the man. The man had a
home and an income, and was Squire of the parish; and therefore there
need be no difficulty! When she compared Mr. Fenwick and Mr. Gilmore
together, she found that she liked Mr. Fenwick the best. She thought
him to be the more clever, the higher spirited, the most of a man of
the two. She certainly was not the least in love with her friend's
husband; but then she was just as little in love with Mr. Gilmore.

At about half-past two Mr. Gilmore made his appearance, standing at
the open window.

"May I come in?" he said.

"Of course you may come in."

"Mrs. Fenwick is not here?"

"She is in the house, I think, if you want her."

"Oh no. I hope you were not frightened last night. I have not seen
Frank this morning; but I hear from Mr. Trumbull that there was
something of a row."

"There was a row, certainly. Mr. Fenwick struck some of the men, and
he is afraid that he hurt one of them."

"I wish he had broken their heads. I take it there was a son of one
of my tenants there, who is about as bad as he can be. Frank will
believ