The Village by the River

ay? I have been frighte

the fire but sheltered from it by a screen, the lamp on the table adjusted to a nicety behind, the illustrated papers ready cut for use,

aving tea at

n the wet and da

essing saw

day to take Sally to the confirmation was just an ex

Sally: she looked so pretty, mother. I've not bee

Lady Bland is terribly hurt at the way you ha

sor

s. Webster, "or you would

asked rather wearily. "I can only reiterate that I re

that you will care for. It really would be wis

marry

You are five-and-twenty now, and you migh

keen to get rid of me. You will be dread

softening; "but a girl like you ought t

admitted

val suitors against each other for a year, was at last compelled to make her choice between them. Tom Burney had that day received an offer from the squire of a free passage to

make it do so," the squire had said. "I have been making up my mind to reduce my staff; and, my cous

t seems a great chance. It would be a certaint

low to get a promise of work. I might ask

I was thinking of,

ch I know but little, I believe quite the wisest thing you could do would be to take out a wife with y

would be time enough to mention

ldly up to the Court and demanded an interview with Rose. She came into the servant's hall where he waite

top long; I'm expecting Mis

mmered Tom. "I've a chance of giving you a hom

, a vision of herself as a bride, in a white frock, an

ut there. It's a wonderful offer that the squire has given

y man! What can you be thinking of to stuff me up with nonsense like that?" R

to wait until I can make you one!-but I'll have your word for

said with rather

ou an honest offer of a home. I'd follow you to the world's end; ill or well, rich or poor I'd love you just the same; you should not have a trouble that I could keep from you. I've told you so before, and I tell you so to-night; but it's the last ti

bster's bell pealed a noi

Webster is not one who can wait. I'll t

hands and holding them so tigh

u can see me home if you like," and wi

o, Rose. Don't play wit

n the whole of her future life. Her heart drew her one way, and her ambition another. Undoubtedly Tom, with his warm heart and openly expressed devotion, was the man she loved the best of the many who had paid her attention; but she might have to wait for him for years, whilst, if Dixon chose to offer it, he could give her a

anted to take the ladies to the station to-morrow? I heard so

find Mr. Wheeler in the pantry

rel with that peppery lad Burney, I expect? Anyway you've been crying about something; and ten to one it's Burney. I saw him coming away f

!" Rose said, stitching away with fever

n Sunday, I suppose?" said D

ld wait," fa

you were of the waiting sor

omise; he'll be all or nothi

ked Dixon, eagerly. "You've not be

oh! I'm miserable: I don't know what to do!" And Rose

here need be no waiting-I'll go and see the vicar about the banns,-and if so be that we can't get the rooms over the stables to ourselves, I'll ask Mr. Lessing to give us a cottage. There! you s

t!" Rose said.

settle Tom f

hes that must be made, and the question of hat versus veil, for the wedding-day loomed large in the foreground. She wondered how Miss Webster would look when she gave her a month's notice that night; and whether Mrs. Webster would offer to have the wedding breakfast at the Court. It was almost certain that as Dixon was coachman, he would have the loan of the carriage; and she would be driven to the church that day for all the world just like a lady

write and tell him that Dixon and I have settled i

o, fetching down her writing-case, she spoiled a dozen sheets of paper in the effort to make her news fairly palatable, finally dashing off an unsatisfactory scrawl, badly

have this note to-night," she said. "It's very particular;

aughing still when he went back into the sadd

the joke

ular' she called it! I'll warrant it's to tel

wly. "Hand it over; I'm going down to

o it; she gave me sixpence to make sure he

ter right to it than I, I should like to know? I'm as good

omise not

rgets," said Dixon

any mistake yo

'll set

eft to himself, Dixon turned the envelope round in his fingers, examining it back and front. The blott

en if she does love the other one; but I've more than half a mind to put this in the fire. It may be to tell him that she's settled things with me; but it would

brief blaze in the fire, and R

feeling that he trod on air, such a stra

sure that she would have put him out of his misery before this. He was not generally a vain fellow, but to-day his toilet was a mat

gh as she pinned it in for him. And To

er she had got there before him, or, for some unknown cause, she had been detained at home. Dixon presently appeared, smart and neat, givin

e friends when I ain't

thoughts that morning were not occupied with devotion. Prayer and psalm passed unheeded over his head; but when, at the end of the second lesson, there was a pause, and the recto

William Dixon, bachelor, and Rose Lanca

bid the banns; but what end would be gained by making himself a greater laughing-stock to the village than he was at present, for already he felt the derisive finger of scorn pointed at him as the man whom Rose had jilted. Even now he saw one or two of the lads nudge each other and look at him with curious eyes. To be watched at such a moment was torture, and, like an animal in pain, Tom longed for solitude. He groped blindly under the seat for his hat, made his way to the door and slipped out. He stumbled on like a man in delirium, looking neither

ught Tom. And the chill wind came sighing across the water, and shook the heavy rus

n she had chosen in preference to him. She would be glad to know he was dead, he told himself with fierce bitterness. She had played with him like a cat with a mouse for more than a year but in the long run the mouse died squeaking. Surely sh

ight miles from Rudham, and that his knees were knocking together with mingled emotion and fatigue. A wayside inn seemed a haven of refuge to him in his exhausted condition. Th

ice," said the landlady, with a glance at the bloodshot ey

d Tom, tossing off the

id not muddle his brain, it cleared it, i

ease," he said, laying dow

coughed behind her hand

g him back sixpence. "You've took as much a

" said Tom, angrily. "I'm ill; I nee

e brandy, and Tom, having swallowed it, bad

and looked after him; he was walk

t's not got into his legs," she said

t ran on Sunday evening, which would land him in Rudham in time for evening service-not that Tom meant to go to church that night. He would walk