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 cloud of sorrow—this was a girl again, with a happy face and bright eyes and a look of hopefulness.

"You are looking well to-day, Elisabeth," said Hepworth presently. "Against an old fellow like me you look quite a girl. You are getting really beautiful."

Elisabeth smiled as she turned to him.

"Am I?" she said. "Then I am glad for your sake. I want to make you happy."

"No fear of my happiness," he said. "My dear—my dear—I am the happiest man alive, I think! Good-bye, Elisabeth—I shall see you to-night, and that, please God, will be our last parting. Good-bye, my dear, good-bye."

He drove away, and Elisabeth, standing at the garden gate, watched him out of sight. He turned at the bend of the highway and waved his hand and so went onward.

Hepworth, on arriving at Sicaster, stabled his horse at the inn and then pursued his business. He had numerous calls to make,