ked her for it.

Though hope and affection could not an once repair an injured spine,
they had wonderful powers in inciting Margaret to new efforts. Alan
was as tender and ready of hand as Richard, and more clever and
enterprising; and her unfailing trust in him prevented all alarms and
misgivings, so that wonders were effected, and her father beheld her
standing with so little support, looking so healthful and so blithe,
that his forebodings melted away, and he talked joyously of the future.

The great achievement was taking her round the garden. She could not
bear the motion of wheels, but Alan adopted the hammock principle, and,
with the aid of Richard and his crony, the carpenter, produced a machine
in which no other power on earth could have prevailed on her to trust
herself, but in which she was carried round the garden so successfully,
that there was even a talk of next Sunday, and of the Minster.

It was safely accomplished, and tired as she was, Margaret felt, as
she whispered to Alan, that he had now crowned all the joy that he had
brought to her.

Ethel used to watch them, and think how beautiful their countenances
were, and talk them over with her father, who was quite happy about them
now. She gave assistance, which Alan never once called unhandy, to all
his contrivances, and often floundered in upon his conferences with
Margaret, in a way that would have been very provoking, if she had not
always blushed and looked so excessively discomfited, and they had only
to laugh and reassure her.

Alan was struck by finding that the casual words spoken on the way from
Cocksmoor had been so strenuously acted on, and he brought on himself
a whole torrent of Ethel's confused narratives, which Richard and Flora
would fain have checked; but Margaret let them continue, as she saw him
a willing listener, and was grateful to him for comprehending the ardent
girl.

He declared himself to have a share in the matter, reminding Ethel of
her appeal to him to bind himself to the service of Cocksmoor. He sent
a sovereign at once, to aid in a case of the sudden death of a pig; and
when securely established in his brotherly right, he begged Ethel to
let him know what would help her most. She stood colouring, twisting
her hands, and wondering what to say, whereupon he relieved her by a
proposal to leave an order for ten pounds, to be yearly paid into her
hands, as a fixed income for her school.

A thousand a year could hardly