fortune he had inherited from his father and the social standing he could claim � a standing however which that fortune would not have been large enough to procure by his reputation in his art but had been weak enough as her mother knew to indulge in fancies for local youths from time to time and mrs could not help herself that her daughter had been so in the circumstances yet to every one except perhaps herself was the most romantic of lovers indeed was there ever such a romance as that man embodied in his relations to her house the first the second had rejected him and to rally to the third with final achievement was an artistic and tender finish to which it was ungrateful in anybody to be blind the widow thought that the second might probably not have rejected on that occasion in the london so many years ago if destiny had not arranged that she should have been secretly united to another when the proposing moment came the well beloved but what had come was best my god she said at times that night to think my aim in writing to him should be itself like this when all was right and done what a success upon the whole her life would have been she who had begun her career as a cottage girl a small owner s daughter had sunk so low as to the position of had engaged in various occupations had made an unhappy marriage for love � which had however in the long run thanks to s management much improved her position � was at last to see her daughter secure what she herself had just missed securing and established in a home of and refinement thus the sick woman excited herself as the hours went on at last in her it seemed to her that the time had already come at which the household was stirring and fancied she heard conversation in her daughter s room but she found that it was only five o clock and not yet daylight her state was such that she could see the of the bed tremble with her she had declared that she did not require any one to sit up with her but she a young man turned sixty now rang a little hand bell and in a few minutes a nurse appeared � an island woman and a neighbor whom mrs knew well and who knew all mrs s history i am so nervous that i can t stay by myself said the widow and i thought i heard dressing miss in her wedding things oh no � not yet ma am there s nobody up but i ll get you something when mrs had taken a little nourishment she went on i can t help myself with thoughts that she won t marry him you see he is older than yes he is said her neighbor but i don t see how anything can the now you know had fancies at least one fancy for another man � a young fellow of five and twenty and she s been very secret and odd about it i wish she had and cried and had it out but she s been quite the other way i know she s fond of him still what � that young frenchman mr o i ve heard a little of it the well beloved but i should say there much between em i don t think there was but i ve a sort of conviction that she saw him last night i believe it was only to bid him good bye and return him some books he had given her but i wish she had never known him he is rather an impulsive young man and he might make mischief he isn t a frenchman though he has lived in france his father was a gentleman and on his becoming a he married as his second wife a native of this very island that s mainly why the young man is so at home in these parts ah � now i follow ee she was a � his i heard something about her years ago yes her father had the biggest on the island at one time but the name is forgotten here now he retired years before i was born however mother used to tell me that she was a handsome young woman who tried to catch mr when he was a young man and herself a bit with him she went off abroad with her father who had made a fortune here but when he got over there he lost it nearly all in a young man turned sixty some way years after she married this man mr who had been fond of her as a girl and she brought up his child as her own mrs paused but as did not ask any question she presently resumed her self murmur how miss got to know the young man was in this way when mrs s husband died she came from to live at and made it her business one day to cross over to this place to make inquiries about mr as my name was she called upon me with her son and so and he got acquainted when she went back to to the finishing school they kept up the acquaintance in secret he taught french somewhere there and does still i believe well i hope shell forget en he good enough i hope so � i hope so now try to get a little nap went back to her room where finding it would not be necessary to get up for another hour she lay down again and soon slept her bed was close to the staircase from which it was divided by a only and her consciousness either was or seemed to be aroused by light brushing touches on the 