lly awaiting him at the
corner where for years she had stood. He had seen her once since her
father's death, and had pressed her hand warmly to express his sympathy,
but he was too honest to condole with her on a loss which was, he knew,
a relief. He and Harry had in the intervening time talked much of
Nelly's prospects. Jack was averse in the extreme to her going into
service, still more averse to her going into a factory, but could
suggest no alternative plan.

"If she were a boy," he said, "it would be easy enough. I am getting
eighteen shillings a week now, and could let her have five easily, and
she might take in dressmaking. There are plenty of people in the
villages round would be glad to get their dresses made; but she would
have to live till she got known a bit, and you know she wouldn't take my
five shillings. I wouldn't dare offer it to her. Now if it was you there
would be no trouble at all; you would take it, of course, just as I
should take it of you, but she wouldn't, because she's a lass--it beats
me altogether. I might get mother to offer her the money, but Nelly
would know it was me sharp enough, and it would be all the same."

"I really think that Nelly might do well wi' dressmaking," Harry said
after a pause. "Here all the lasses ha' learnt to work, but, as you say,
in the other villages they know no more than we did here three years
back; if we got some bills printed and sent 'em round, I should say she
might do. There are other things you don't seem to ha' thought on,
Jack," he said hesitatingly. "You're only eighteen yet, but you are
earning near a pound a week, and in another two or three years will be
getting man's pay, and you are sure to rise. Have you never thought of
marrying Nelly?"

Jack jumped as if he had trodden on a snake.

"I marry Nelly!" he said in astonishment. "What! I marry Nelly! are you
mad, Harry? You know I have made up my mind not to marry for years, not
till I'm thirty and have made my way; and as to Nelly, why I never
thought of her, nor of any other lass in that way; her least of all;
why, she is like my sister. What ever put such a ridiculous idea in your
head? Why, at eighteen boys haven't left school and are looking forward
to going to college; those boy and girl marriages among our class are
the cause of half our troubles. Thirty is quite time enough to marry.
How Nelly would laugh if she knew what you'd said!"

"I should advise you not to tell her," Harry said d