The Vicar of Bullhampton

sat together, with their work in their hands, on a garden seat under a cedar tree. It was an August evening after dinner, and th

ve him an answer. Wha

e wishes. If any man wa

an for him then in waiting-t

t when a girl bids a man to wait, she will take him after a while. It always comes to that. If you had been at home at Loring, the ti

ll go back

an answer one way or the other. You could not go now and leave him in

while said nothing, but went

nning up, followed by a nursery

our-and-a-half years old, and a boy, a year younger, and a l

water, Flo! Can't

gone,

bushes, and that it was caught there just out of reach of all that she, Jane, could do with a long stick for its recovery.

y for that five minutes of thought by herself which she ne

is so big," said

Jim would go in, perhaps, which I certainly shall not do." Then she took

t projecting stick. Jim could have got it certainly, because he could have suspended himself ove

herself to the bough, as Jim would have done, and became more and more venturous, and at last touched the ball, and then, at last,-fell into the river! Immediately there was a scream and a roar

ou hurt?" sa

o, don't be unhappy. It's such good fun. Only you mustn't fall in yourself, till you're

your head has been und

moment I had a sound of Ophelia in my ears. Then

go to bed, dear; and I'l

ing warm; but I will change my clothes. Wh

r made no answer, but went straight up to the ho

painfully anxious that Harry might succeed. Fenwick had loved the man dearly for many years, and Janet Fenwick had loved him since she had known him as her husband's friend. They both felt that he was showing more of manhood than they had expected from him in the persistency of his love, and that he deserved his reward. And they both believed also tha

ck, coming to the window, which opened down to th

his hands, and seeming to prepare himself to rush

mstances were explained, and the papa declared magisterially that Flo must not play any more with her b

her will have gone t

warm drinks, and cossetting; but she would have none of it. She sc

said the Vicar. "If you start before elev

him than she was a month since. Her friend Janet had complained again and again of the suspense to which she was subjecting the man;-but she knew on the other hand that her friend Janet did this in her intense anxiety to promote the match. Was it wrong to say to the man-"I will wait and try?" Her friend told her that to say that she would wait and try, was in truth to say that she would take him at some future time;-that any girl who said so had almost committed herself to such a decision;-that the very fact that she was waiting and trying to love a man ought to bind her to the man at last. Such certainly had not been her own idea. As far as she could at present look into her own future feelings, she did not think

nt were the most serious thing in the world. Mr. Fenwick was all mirth, as though there had never been a better joke. Mrs. Fenwick, who was perhaps unwise in her impatience, was specially anxious that her two gue

look at the spot,"

alked down together, four abreast, across the lawn, and thence they reached a certain green orchard path that led down to the river. Mrs. Fenwick purposely went on with the lover, leaving Mary with her husban

had scrambled, and the water which had then b

have been in there!" said

uld ever have got out

." And the charming schemer took her husband's arm, and continued the round of the garde

p, and a resolution that she would not be driven from it. But he walked on beside her talking of the water, and of the danger, and of the chance of a cold, and got no nearer to the subject than to bid her think what suffering she would have caused had she failed to extricate herself

age garden through the churchyard to a field path

want to make Fenwick come out again to-night. Y

dear

are of yourself. I hardly think you o

ilmore. You make infin

anything that regards you? Y

I fanc

, and she promised him that she would obey him. He clearly was entitled to her obedience on such a point. Then she sl

he world than this, she did not think that it would ever come in her way. Up to this time of her life she had never felt any such feeling. If not for her own sake, why should she not do it for him? Why should he

Janet, "how

know how it will be," she said, turni