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236 ta think thou hes got my share o' good-sense as well as thy own? I wouldn' be as hard to get along with as thou art, for a good deal."

But in spite of sharp words, Ben helped Jonathan into his gig; and Jonathan, ere he passed out of his big gates, looked back and nodded to Ben. And as Ben trailed his long legs up the weary flights of stone steps once more, he said to himself, "Poor Jonathan! He's hed a deal to make him grumpy. If he hedn't a sweet nature he'd be sour as crab-apples by this time."

Eleanor's note had thoroughly pleased her father. Burley longed for peace, not because he had turned weak-hearted or had lost faith in himself and his claims, but because he loved Aske. Yes! he loved the man who had been driving him to ruin and despair for nearly four years. He longed to see him again. He longed to clasp his hand, and to make him feel how completely he had forgiven him.

The evening was not unlike the one on which he had seen him last, wounded, bleeding, dying. The snow still lay white and unbroken in Aske Park, the sky was flecked with cold, feathery clouds, and through the mist stealing over the