“And yet,” murmured poor Esther, the flush of hope fading as suddenly as it had arisen, as with meek sad eyes she glanced at the reflection of her features in the small oval glass suspended above the mantel-piece—­“I almost doubt, Susy, dear, if he would recognize me; even if old feelings and old times have not long since faded from his memory”—­

“Stuff and trumpery about fading away!” broke in Mrs. Davies.  “Henry Mason is the same true-hearted man he was eight years ago; and as a proof that he is, just read this letter, which I promised him to give you.  There, don’t go falling into a flustration; don’t now, Esther, and to-morrow market-day and all!  Don’t cry, Esther,” she added vehemently, but at the same time sobbing furiously herself, and throwing her arms round her sister’s neck:  “but perhaps—­perhaps it will do us good, both of us!”

It may he necessary to state that I owe the foregoing particulars to the interest felt by my wife—­herself a native of beautiful Devon—­in the fortunes of this humble household.  Esther was her foster-sister; and it happened that just at this period, it being vacation-time, we were paying a visit to a family in the neighborhood.  A few hours after the receipt of the welcome letter, my wife chanced to call on Esther relative to some fancy needlework; and on her return, I was of course favored with very full and florid details of this little bit of cottage romance; the which I, from regard to the reader, have carefully noted down, and as briefly as possible expressed.

We met Henry Mason with his recovered treasure on the following evening; and certainly a more favorable specimen of the vigorous, active, bold-featured, frank-spoken British seaman I never met with.  To his comparatively excellent education—­for which I understood he was indebted to his mother, a superior woman, who, having fallen from one of the little heights of society, had kept a school at Plymouth—­in addition to his correct and temperate habits, he was indebted for the rapid advance—­he was but a few months older than Esther—­he had obtained in the merchant service.  The happiness which beamed upon Esther’s face did not appear to be of the exuberant, buoyant character that kindled the ruddy cheek and ran over at the bright, honest eyes of the hardy sailor:  there seemed to mingle with it a half-doubting, trembling apprehensiveness; albeit it was not difficult to perceive that, sorrowfully as had passed her noon of prime, an “Indian summer” of the soul was rising upon her brightened existence, and already with its first faint flushes lighting up her meek, doubting eyes, and pale, changing countenance.  Willy, her feeble-minded child, frisked and gambolled by their side; and altogether, a happier group than they would, I fancy, have been difficult to find in all broad England.

The next week they were married; and one of the partners in the firm by which Mason was employed happening to dine with us on the day of the wedding, the conversation turned for a few minutes on the bridegroom’s character and prospects.