he matter over with Jack,
and the latter told him now that he had entered his name in St. Mark's
College, Chelsea, had paid his fees six months in advance, his savings
amply sufficing for this without drawing upon his salary, and that he
was to present himself there in a week's time.

The announcement took away Harry's breath, but as soon as he recovered
himself he accepted Jack's offer as frankly as it was made. It had
always been natural for Jack to lend him a hand, and it seemed to him,
as to Jack, natural that it should be so now.

"Have you told Nelly?"

"No, I left it for you to tell, Harry. I know, of course, one reason why
you want to be a schoolmaster, and she will know it too. She is a
strange girl, is Nelly; I never did quite understand her, and I never
shall; why on earth she should refuse you I can't make out. She's had
lots o' other offers these last four years, but it's all the same.
There's no one she cares for, why shouldn't she take you?"

"I can wait," Harry said quietly, "there's plenty of time; perhaps some
day I shall win her, and I think--yes, I think now--that I shall."

"Well," Jack said cheerfully, "as you say there's plenty of time; I've
always said thirty was the right age to marry, and you want eight years
of that, and Nelly won't get old faster than you do, so if she don't
fall in love with any one else it must come right; she has stood out for
nearly four years, and though I don't pretend to know anything of women,
I should think no woman could go on saying no for twelve years."

Harry, although not given to loud mirth, laughed heartily at Jack's
views over love-making, and the two then walked across to Nelly Hardy's
cottage. Jack told her what Bill Haden and his wife had decided, and she
approved their determination. Then Harry said what Jack had arranged for
him.

Nelly shook her head as if in answer to her own thoughts while Harry was
speaking, but when he ceased she congratulated him warmly.

"You were never fit for pit-work, Harry, and a schoolmaster's life will
suit you well. It is curious that Jack's two friends should both have
taken to the same life."

Jack's surprise was unbounded when, a month after the reopening of the
Vaughan, Mr. Brook took him over to his new abode. His bewilderment at
the size and completeness of the house and its fittings was even greater
than his pleasure.

"But what am I to do alone in this great place, Mr. Brook?" he asked; "I
shall be lost