content, radiant, and serene.  ‘And it’s not surprising, either!’ people added.  The homestead appeared to be as of old.  Carpenter was feeding Prince in the stable; Bran lay huge and benign at the feet of his mistress; the borders of the lawn were vivid with bloom; and within the house Bessie still ruled the kitchen.  No luxury was abated, and no custom altered.  Time apparently had nothing to show there, save an engagement ring on Bessie’s finger.  Many things, however, had occurred; but they had seemed to occur so placidly, and the days had been so even, that the term of her widowhood was to Leonora more like three months than fifteen, and she often reminded herself:  ‘It was last spring, not this, that he died.’

‘The business is right enough!’ Fred Ryley had said positively, with an emphasis on the word ‘business,’ when he met Leonora and Uncle Meshach in family council, during the first week of the disaster; and Meshach had replied:  ‘Thou shalt prove it, lad!’ The next morning Mr. Mayer, the manager, and everybody on the bank, learned that Fred, with old Myatt at his back, was in sole control of the works at Shawport; creditors breathed with relief; and the whole of Bursley remembered that it had always prophesied that Fred’s sterling qualities were bound to succeed.  Meshach lent several thousands of pounds to Fred at five per cent., and Fred was to pay half the net profits of the business to Leonora as long as she lived.  The youth did not change his lodgings, nor his tailor, nor his modest manners; but he became nevertheless suddenly important, and none appreciated this fact better than Mr. Mayer, whose sandy hair was getting grey, and who, having six children but no rich great-uncle, could never hope to earn more than three pounds a week.  Fred was now an official member of the Myatt clan, and, in the town, men of position, pompous individuals who used to ignore him, greeted the sole principal of Twemlow & Stanway’s with a certain cordiality.  After an interval his engagement to Ethel was announced.  Every evening he came up to Hillport.  The couple were ardently and openly in love; they expected always to have the dining-room at their private disposal, and they had it.  Ethel simply adored him, and he was immeasurably proud of her.  Even in presence of the family they would sit hand in hand, making no attempt to conceal their bliss.  For the rest Fred’s attitude to Leonora was very affectionate and deferential; it touched her, though she knew he worshipped her ignorantly.  Rose and Millicent wondered ’what Ethel could see in him’; he was neither amusing nor smart nor clever, nor even vivacious; he had little acquaintance with games, music, novels, or the feminist movement; he was indeed rather dull; but they liked him because he was fundamentally and invariably ‘nice.’  At the close of the year of Stanway’s death, Fred had paid to Leonora four hundred and fifty pounds as her share of the profits of the firm for nine months.