Page:The Clergyman's Wife.djvu/199

 Though Mr. Stillwell is approaching the meridian of his days, as we have said, he is yet a bachelor. Probably his horror of the dread "no," has prevented his running the risk of hearing it from lips which smiled on him. If some pitying maid or widow, should ever chance to avail herself of the privilege of leap-year, Mr. Stillwell's settled aversion to the negative may eventually secure him a partner, who, for the rest of his life, will answer "no" for him, and thus defend him against his tormentors, and lead him to the turn in that long, briery lane, through which he is so sadly journeying. That is the one hope left for him. Would he be the first man who had found his salvation through a woman?