exactly
at half-past five."

"That is to say, we're to be there at half-past five, and you'll keep
us waiting for three-quarters of an hour," said Lily. Nevertheless
the arrangement as proposed was made, and the two ladies were not
at all unwilling to make it. It is thus that the game is carried on
among unsophisticated people who really live in the country. The
farmyard gate at Farmer Gruddock's has not a fitting sound as a
trysting-place in romance, but for people who are in earnest it does
as well as any oak in the middle glade of a forest. Lily Dale was
quite in earnest--and so indeed was Adolphus Crosbie,--only with him
the earnest was beginning to take that shade of brown which most
earnest things have to wear in this vale of tears. With Lily it was
as yet all rose-coloured. And Bernard Dale was also in earnest.
Throughout this morning he had stood very near to Bell on the
lawn, and had thought that his cousin did not receive his little
whisperings with any aversion. Why should she? Lucky girl that she
was, thus to have eight hundred a year pinned to her skirt!

"I say, Dale," Crosbie said, as in the course of their day's work
they had come round upon Gruddock's ground, and were preparing to
finish off his turnips before they reached the farmyard gate. And
now, as Crosbie spoke, they stood leaning on the gate, looking at the
turnips while the two dogs squatted on their haunches. Crosbie had
been very silent for the last mile or two, and had been making up his
mind for this conversation. "I say, Dale,--your uncle has never said
a word to me yet as to Lily's fortune."

"As to Lily's fortune! The question is whether Lily has got a
fortune."

"He can hardly expect that I am to take her without something. Your
uncle is a man of the world and he knows--"

"Whether or no my uncle is a man of the world, I will not say; but
you are, Crosbie, whether he is or not. Lily, as you have always
known, has nothing of her own."

"I am not talking of Lily's own. I'm speaking of her uncle. I have
been straightforward with him; and when I became attached to your
cousin I declared what I meant at once."

"You should have asked him the question, if you thought there was any
room for such a question."

"Thought there was any room! Upon my word, you are a cool fellow."

"Now look here, Crosbie; you may say what you like about my uncle,
but you must not say a word against Lily."

"Who is going to say a word against her? You c