they gave
me----"

"I know: a cardcase or a button-hook, or something. And how many
biscuit-boxes have you got, and clocks, and that sort of thing? I advise
you to have an auction as soon as we get away. Hallo! that's a nice
little thing; look pretty on your pretty white neck I should say, Nell.
Who gave you that?" He took John's necklace out of its box where it had
lain undisturbed until now, and pulled it through his fingers. "Cost a
pretty bit of money that, I should say. You can raise the wind on it
when we're down on our luck, Nell."

"My cousin John, whom you have heard me speak of, gave me that, Phil,"
said Elinor, with great gravity. She thought it necessary, she could
scarcely tell why, to make a stand for her cousin John.

"Ah, I thought it was one of the disappointed ones," said Phil, flinging
it back carelessly onto the bed of white velvet where it had been fitted
so exactly. "That's how they show their spite; for of course I can't
give you anything half as good as that."

"There was no disappointment in the matter," said Elinor, almost angry
with the misconceptions of her lover.

"You are a nice one," said Compton, taking her by the chin, "to tell me!
as if I didn't know the world a long sight better than you do, my little
Nell."

The Rector, who was following slowly, for he did not like to go up-stairs
in a hurry, saw this attitude and drew back, a little scandalized.
"Perhaps we were indiscreet to--to follow them too closely," he said,
disconcerted. "Please to go in first, Mrs. Dennistoun--the young couple
will not mind you."

Mr. Hudson was prim; but he was rather pleased to see that "the young
couple" were, as he said, so fond of each other. He went into the room
under the protection of the mother--blushing a little. It reminded him,
as he said afterwards, of his own young days; but it was only natural
that he should walk up direct to the place where his kettle stood
conspicuous, waiting only the spark of a match to begin to boil the
water for the first conjugal tea. It appeared to him a beautiful
idea as he put his head on one side and looked at it. It was like the
inauguration of the true British fireside, the cosy privacy in which,
after the man had done his work, the lady awaited him at home, with the
tea-kettle steaming. A generation before Mr. Hudson there would have
been a pair of slippers airing beside the fire. But neither of these
preparations supply the ideal of perfect happiness no