ovet money, but he valued it very highly; and as
for Mrs. Prime, she had an almost unbounded satisfaction in her own
independence. She had, after all, but two hundred a year, out of
which she gave very much in charity. But this giving in charity was
her luxury. Fine raiment and dainty food tempted her not at all; but
nevertheless she was not free from temptations, and did not perhaps
always resist them. To be mistress of her money, and to superintend
the gifts, not only of herself but of others; to be great among the
poor, and esteemed as a personage in her district,--that was her
ambition. When Mr. Prong told her that money in her sight was dross,
she merely shook her head. Why was it that she wrote those terribly
caustic notes to the agent in Exeter if her quarterly payments were
ever late by a single week? "Defend me from a lone widow," the agent
used to say, "and especially if she's evangelical." Mrs. Prime
delighted in the sight of the bit of paper which conveyed to her the
possession of her periodical wealth. To her money certainly was not
dross, and I doubt if it was truly so regarded by Mr. Prong himself.

"Any arrangements that you choose as to settlements or the like of
that, could of course be made." Mr. Prong when he began, or rather
when he made up his mind to begin, had determined that he would use
all his best power of language in pressing his suit; but the work
had been so hard that his fine language had got itself lost in the
struggle. I doubt whether this made much difference with Mrs. Prime;
or it may be, that he had sustained the propriety of his words as
long as such propriety was needful and salutary to his purpose. Had
he spoken of the "like of that" at the opening of the negotiation, he
might have shocked his hearer; but now she was too deeply engaged in
solid serious considerations to care much for the words which were
used. "A hundred and thirty from pew-rents," she said to herself, as
he endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to look under her bonnet into her
face.

"I think I have said it all now," he continued. "If you will trust
yourself into my keeping I will endeavour, with God's assistance, to
do my duty by you. I have said but little personally of myself or of
my feelings, hoping that it might be unnecessary."

"Oh, quite so," said she.

"I have spoken rather of those duties which we should undertake
together in sweet companionship, if you will consent to--to--to be
Mrs. Prong, in short." Th