ssionately, casting off all reserve, "I
know all; who you are, and why you first came hither, and I am here to
offer you the half of all I have."

"Half, sweet cousin?" answers he, taking her two hands in his.

"Aye; for if I had not come to claim it, all would have been yours by
right. And 'tis no more than fair that, owing so much to Fortune, I
should offer you the half."

"Suppose that half will not suffice me, dear?" says he.

"Why, then I'll give you all," answers she; "houses, gardens,
everything."

"Then what will you do, coz?"

"Go hence, as you were going but just now," answers she, trembling.

"Why, that's as if you took the diamond from its setting, and left me
nothing but the foil," says he. "Oh, I would order it another way: give
me the gem, and let who will take what remains. Unless these little
hands are mine to hold for ever, I will take nothing from them."

"They are thine, dear love," cries she, in a transport, flinging them
about his neck, "and my heart as well."

At this conjuncture I thought it advisable to steal softly away to the
bend of the road; for surely any one coming this way by accident, and
finding them locked together thus in tender embrace on the king's
highway, would have fallen to some gross conclusion, not understanding
their circumstances, and so might have offended their delicacy by some
rude jest. And I had not parted myself here a couple of minutes, ere I
spied a team of four stout horses coming over the brow of the hill,
drawing the stage waggon behind them which plies betwixt Sevenoaks and
London. This prompting me to a happy notion, I returned to the happy,
smiling pair, who were now seated again upon the bridge, hand in hand,
and says I:

"My dear friends,--for so I think I may now count you, sir, as well as
my Mistress Judith here,--the waggon is coming down the hill, by which I
had intended to go to London this morning upon some pressing business.
And so, Madam, if your cousin will take my horse and conduct you back to
the Court, I will profit by this occasion and bid you farewell for the
present."

This proposal was received with evident satisfaction on their part, for
there was clearly no further thought of parting; only Moll, alarmed for
the proprieties, did beg her lover to lift her on her horse instantly.
Nevertheless, when she was in her saddle, they must linger yet, he to
kiss her hands, and she to bend down and yield her cheek to his lips,
though the so