THE WEST SHORE.
315
mother explained to her that Dnrton had readily assented
to the postponement. '
"No doubt lie hns," snid Sallv with .i 1 :..
" It is not put off for a week, or a month, or n yrnr I
uliuli nnvnr innrrv him nnrl ulm ...Ml
- - J ...... ''. nun mil,
IV.
One (Inv. seven mnntlm lntnv .... ...i. u. i .
'iii- . " ""'ii warton
wns HS URlial fit Inn farm tum.t,. ,;i., . if ,
note reached him from Holona. Hhe thanked him for
' Klu" "r "r ciiiKiren, which her mother-in-law
lind duly commnnictited, nnd ntatinl that film would
be clad to accept it as regarded tho eldest, the law
Helena had. in truth, prowl need tr ,U t... i .
had left her penniless, and all application' to somo rein-
tivaa in Tnlia lin1 f..ilml rn. i i .
v. ,v, ... ..,...,. ..nu iitucni. inrio was, IICHlllOH, as she
Bum, no goou scnooi near mntock to which bIio could
send the child.
On a fine summer day the boy came. He was entered
hh n uy suuoiar hi a popular hciiooI at Uasterbridgo,
three or four miles from Darton's, having first lieen
tauoflit by D.irton to ride a forest pony, on which ho can
tere.l to and from the aforesaid fount of knowledge.
When the Christmas holidays came it was arranged
that he should spend them with his mother. The jour
ney was, for some reason or other, performed in two
staves. Dnrtnn in linrann iiwnmnniviiiii ln'm tlm f!...,t I. ..If
c i' imii vii, iiinii mill
of the journey. Reaching the Pack Horse, a roadside
inn, iiihi uie appoinieu piaee or. mooting, Darton inquired
if Miss nnd young Mrs. Hall were there to meet little
Philip. He was answered by the appearance of Helena
alone at the door.
"At the last moment Sally would not come," she fal
tered. That meeting practically settled the point toward
which these long-Bevored ersoi)H were converging. Hut
nothing was broached about it for some time yet Hidly
Hull had, in fact, imparted tho first decisive motion to
I'vouts by refusing to accompany Helena. She book gave
them a second move by writing the following note:
Dkm ('hahmm:-
a Living- hum no Ion anil intimately wlfh lUlrna. I linvf nalnnllr Imrnl h-r
liiMlury. eniMHiiaily tliat of it wlnnli mfHr.tfilriiu. I am lia w.iulil ndiii
ywi fia a. liiiNbAiil at tho pruMr tim . ami I think yiimiualittii miim liir tint
iipiHiilunity. Ytra inquire m an ohl mile if I am winy tlml 1 h.ivml tniMr
(wlucili itwun'f) t'lht mailt wIh'o I liranl pm Cm I k mac lu har. N. I liarli-s I
ni uol aurry at all tot what 1 aaitl Hum. Youra uiiinly, Hu.u ll.i.i.
Thus set in train, the transfer of Darton's heart buck
to its original quartors proceeded by mere lapse of time.
The following summer Darton was united to Helena at a
simple matter-of-fact wedding; and she ami her little
girl joined the boy who had already grown to look on
Darton's house as home.
For some months the farmer exiorioneod an nnpreco.
dented happiness and satisfaction. There had la-en a
Haw in his life, and it was as neatly iiiemled as watt
humanly possible. Hut after o season the stream of
events followed less clearly, and there were shades in his
reveries. Helena was a fragile woman, of little staying
iower, physically or morally, ami since tho time that lie
had originally known her (eight or ten years before) she
had been severely tried. She had loved herself out, in
short, and was now occasionally given to moping. 8oiii
times she sjxjke regretfully of the gentilities of her early
life, and instead of comparing her present state with her
condition as the wife of the unlucky Hall, she mused
rather on what it had been before she took the first fatal
step of clandestinely marrying him. She did not care
to please such people as those with whom slm was thrown
as a thriving farmer's wife. She allowed the pretty
trifle of agricultural domesticity to glide by her at
sorry details, and bad it not been for the children Dar-
on h house would have seemed but liltle brighter than it
had lieen before. This led to occasional unpleasantness,
until Darton sometimes declared to himself tlint such
iniiWvois as Inn to rectify early deviation- of the heart
y harking back to the old point mostly failed of success,
tint ho kept these iiunieliMlious thouglita to himself, nd
was outwardly considerate nnd kind.
This somewhat barren tract of his life lmd extended
to less than a year and a hair, when his jx.nderinga were
cut short by the loss of the woman they eoncernetl,
H hen she was in her grave he thought ls-tti rof her llinn
when she hail been alive; the farm was n worse place
without her than with her, after all. No woman short of
divine could have gono through such an experience as
hers with her first husband without becoming a liltle
soured. Her stagnant sympathies, her sometimes im
reasonable manner, hail covered a heart frank ami well,
meaning, ami originally hoeful and warm. She left
him a tiny red infant in white wrappings. To make life
as easy as possible to this touching object became at
once his care.
As this child learnt to walk and talk Parton learnt to
see feasibility in a scheme which pleased him. Ilevolv.
ing the experiment which he hail hitherto made iixin
life, ho fancied he had gained wisdom from his mistake
and caution from his miscarriages.
What tho scheme was needs no penetration to tlis.
cover. Once more he hail opportunity to recast sud roc.
tify his ill-wrought situations by returning to Sally Hall,
who still lived quietly on under Imr mother's roof at
llinttx'k Abbas. Darton wns not a man to act rapidly,
and the working nut of his reparative designs might have
been delayed for some time, JItit there came a winter
evening precisely like the one which hail darkened over
that former ride to Hintock Abbas, and lie asked himself
why he should hvhImiiio longer, when the very landscape
called for a repetition of that attempt.
He told Ins man to saddle the mare, btsitcd and
spurred himself with a younger horseman's nicety, kissed
the two youngest children, and rode tiff. Nothing hin
dered the smoothness of his journey, which seemtsl not
half its former length. Though dark, it was only be.
tween live ami six o'clock when the bulky chimneys of
Mrs. Hull's residence npHaretl in view Miiml the syca
more tree. He nut up at the Hheaf of Arrows as in for
mer time; and wlicn he had plumed himself before the
inn mirror, called for a glass of negus, ami smtsitiied out
the incipient wrinkles of care, be walked on to the Knap
with a quick step.
That evening Sully was makiuu "pinners" for the
milkers, which were now Increased by two, fur her mother
ami herself no longer joined in milking the rows them
selves. Hut umiii the whole there was little change in
the household economy, anil not much in its apMarance,
lioyoiid such minor particulars as that the crack over the
window, which had Ihhii a hundred years coming, was a
trille wider; that the beams were a shade blocker; that
the iiilltieuon of modernism bad supplanted the ots-n
chimney corner by a grate; ami that Sally's foe had
naturally assumed a more womanly ami exsrieiiiid cast,
Mrs. Hall was actually lifting coals with the tongs,
as she hail used to do.
"Five years ago this very night, if I am not mis
taken," she said, laying on an eiiils-r.
"Not this very night -though 'twas one night this
week," said the correct Hotly.
" Well, 'tis near enough. Five years ago Mr. Darton
came to marry you ami my str boy l'hil came home to
din." She sights! "All, Sally," aim urnseuU y aaitl, " if