on pained him--not selfishly, for he had never
hoped for himself, but because of the secret suffering which it implied.
His one idea was to do her bidding, yet not betray her. He delivered her
message to his father with a tact of which he was himself unconscious.
On his lips it became no less urgent, but he dwelt especially on Sissy's
desire to see justice done to the man who had been accidentally
disinherited; on her feeling that she owed more to the Thornes, whose
home and love she had shared, than to the Langtons, with whom she
shared nothing but a name; and on her impatience of even an hour's
delay, because the squire's sudden death had made a deep impression on
her mind. All this, translated into Harry's blunt and simple speech, was
intelligible enough to Mr. Hardwicke. The girlish whim that all should
be done on her birthday made him smile, but the remembrance of Godfrey
Thorne was present in his mind as in hers. He did not attach much
importance to the whole affair, and felt that he should not be
overwhelmed with surprise should he hear a few months later that Sissy
was going to be married to some one else, and wanted to make some
compromise--perhaps to resign the squire's legacy to Percival. To his
eyes it looked more like an attempt at restitution than anything else.
"She is sorry for him, poor fellow!" thought Mr. Hardwicke. "She did not
know her own mind, and now she would like to atone to him somehow."

Sissy came back alone at the time she had fixed, looking white and
anxious. A client came out as she arrived, and five farmers were waiting
in the office to see Mr. Hardwicke: therefore, though she was ushered in
at once, the interview was brief. The old lawyer paid her a smiling
compliment on her promptitude. "We have to advise people to make their
wills sometimes," he said, "but you are beforehand with us." Sissy
expressed a fear that she had troubled him on a very busy day, and he
assured her that to blame her because her twenty-first birthday happened
to fall on a Friday would be the last thing he should think of doing.
Then the girl looked up at him, and said that old Mr. Thorne had always
been so good to her, and she thought that perhaps if he could see he
would be glad, so she could not put it off. She stopped abruptly, and
her eyes filled. Mr. Hardwicke bent his head in silent acquiescence, the
brief document was duly signed and witnessed, and Sissy went away,
riding home as if she had never known what