Page:Between Two Loves.djvu/291

286 was there a man so foolishly, so completely, so thoroughly in love as Ben Holden.

Now there was a pretty house near by the new mill. Aske had built it for Sykes, and it was now owned by Jonathan. As soon as Ben had a revelation touching the condition of matters between his heart and Nelly Lewthwaite, he wrote to Jonathan about this house. "I want to buy it," he said; "it is near the mill, and handy to live in, and I have got a notion in my head to furnish and have a house of my own, if thou will sell it."

The proposition seemed a very natural one to Jonathan. He reflected that Ben had now a very responsible and important position; that he was far from being poor, and that a man who is not a householder is very like a nobody, no matter how rich he is. The sum Ben offered for the house was a fair one; not too much, not too little; and Jonathan was glad to be able to please so old and dear a friend.

"Thou can have the house and welcome," he wrote, "at thy own price, and I am glad above everything that thou art thinking of a home of thy own. Married or not married home is a full cup. I wish thou would get thee a wife,