ottle of the old household mead that had lain in the cellar
these eleven years. He was discovered by his father three-quarters of an
hour later as a half-invisible object behind a cloud of smoke.

The miller drew a breath of relief. 'Why, Bob,' he said, 'I thought the
house was a-fire!'

'I'm smoking rather fast to drown my reflections, father. 'Tis no use to
chaw.'

To tempt his attenuated appetite the unhappy mate made David cook an
omelet and bake a seed-cake, the latter so richly compounded that it
opened to the knife like a freckled buttercup. With the same object he
stuck night-lines into the banks of the mill-pond, and drew up next
morning a family of fat eels, some of which were skinned and prepared for
his breakfast. They were his favourite fish, but such had been his
condition that, until the moment of making this effort, he had quite
forgotten their existence at his father's back-door.

In a few days Bob Loveday had considerably improved in tone and vigour.
One other obvious remedy for his dejection was to indulge in the society
of Miss Garland, love being so much more effectually got rid of by
displacement than by attempted annihilation. But Loveday's belief that
he had offended her beyond forgiveness, and his ever-present sense of her
as a woman who by education and antecedents was fitted to adorn a higher
sphere than his own, effectually kept him from going near her for a long
time, notwithstanding that they were inmates of one house. The reserve
was, however, in some degree broken by the appearance one morning, later
in the season, of the point of a saw through the partition which divided
Anne's room from the Loveday half of the house. Though she dined and
supped with her mother and the Loveday family, Miss Garland had still
continued to occupy her old apartments, because she found it more
convenient there to pursue her hobbies of wool-work and of copying her
father's old pictures. The division wall had not as yet been broken
down.

As the saw worked its way downwards under her astonished gaze Anne jumped
up from her drawing; and presently the temporary canvasing and papering
which had sealed up the old door of communication was cut completely
through. The door burst open, and Bob stood revealed on the other side,
with the saw in his hand.

'I beg your ladyship's pardon,' he said, taking off the hat he had been
working in, as his handsome face expanded into a smile. 'I didn't know
this d