Page:Between Two Loves.djvu/299

294 fingers Nelly owed the beauty and fitness of her marriage garments; for she thoroughly approved Ben's choice, knowing that there were far more chances for his happiness with a little lass so young and simple that submission to her pleasure was no more humiliating than submission to the whims of a child, than there would have been had he united himself to some discreet, experienced woman, whom he must have met on equal grounds, and whose opposition to his will would have been a serious offense.

At this time Sarah was very happy. True, she heard next to nothing of Jonathan, for as everything is known in a mill village, it had been thought best to deny themselves the pleasure of a correspondence, from which many unjust and unkind suspicions might arise. But she trusted entirely in her lover, and Jonathan's heart was firmly placed on her. Also, the letters which came from Steve were more and more encouraging, and the promises they contained had received frequent emphatic redemptions in cash, a very literal and unromantic, but yet a very certain and satisfactory evidence of his well-doing.

One night in the beginning of December