a
talk!"

"Talk! who cares for talk?" said the farmer; "won't the youngsters we
left on the road talk?"

"Quite enough," said Jane.

"And are _you_ afraid of talk?" said the farmer to Nancy.

"I'm not afraid of it when I don't provoke it willfully," said Nancy;
"but we are poor girls, and can't afford to lose even the good word of
our acquaintance. You've been very kind in taking us up on the road; but
to drive us to our door would cause such wonder as would perhaps make us
wish we had not been obliged to you."

"Blame me, if you arn't right again!" said the young farmer,
thoughtfully. "These are scandal-loving times, and th' neebors might
plague you. That's a deep head of yourn, though--Nancy, I think your
sister caw'd you. Well, here I stop then."

He jumped down, and helped them out.

"If you will drive on first," said Jane, "we will walk on after, and we
are greatly obliged to you."

"Nay," said the young man, "I shall turn again here."

"But you've business."

"Oh! my business was to drive you here--that's all."

James Cheshire was mounting his cart, when Nancy stepped up, and said,
"Excuse me, sir, but you'll meet the mill-people on your return, and it
will make them talk all the more, as you have driven us past your farm.
Have you no business that you can do in Tidser, sir?"

"Gad! but thou'rt right again! Ay, I'll go on!" and with a crack of his
whip, and a "Good night!" he whirled into the village before them.

No sooner was he gone than Nancy, pressing her sister's arm to her side,
said, "There's the right man at last, dear Jane."

"What!" said Jane, yet blushing deeply at the same time, and her heart
beating quicker against her side. "Whatever are you talking of, Nancy?
That young farmer fall in love with a mill-girl?"

"He's done it," said Nancy; "I see it in him--I feel it in him. And I
feel, too, that he is true and stanch as steel."

Jane was silent. They walked on in silence. Jane's own heart responded
to what Nancy had said; she thought again and again on what he said. "I
have seen you sometimes;" "I noticed you because you seemed so
sisterly." "He must have a good heart," thought Jane; "but then he can
never think of a poor mill-girl like me."

The next morning they had to undergo plenty of raillery from their
companions. We will pass that over. For several days, as they passed to
and fro, they saw nothing of the young farmer. But one evening, as they
were again alone, having sta