Ah me! yes; it was thus he argued to himself as on that morning he went through the arrangements of his toilet.  ‘Then he was a brute,’ you say, my pretty reader.  I have never said that he was not a brute.  But this I remark, that many such brutes are to be met with in the beaten paths of the world’s high highway.  When Patience Woolsworthy had answered him coldly, bidding him go back to London and think over his love; while it seemed from her manner that at any rate as yet she did not care for him; while he was absent from her, and, therefore, longing for her, the possession of her charms, her talent, and bright honesty of purpose had seemed to him a thing most desirable.  Now they were his own.  They had, in fact, been his own from the first.  The heart of this country-bred girl had fallen at the first word from his mouth.  Had she not so confessed to him?  She was very nice,—­very nice indeed.  He loved her dearly.  But had he not sold himself too cheaply?

I by no means say that he was not a brute.  But whether brute or no he was an honest man, and had no remotest dream, either then, on that morning, or during the following days on which such thoughts pressed more thickly on his mind—­of breaking away from his pledged word.  At breakfast on that morning he told all to Miss Le Smyrger, and that lady, with warm and gracious intentions, confided to him her purpose regarding her property.  ‘I have always regarded Patience as my heir,’ she said, ‘and shall do so still.’

‘Oh, indeed,’ said Captain Broughton.

’But it is a great, great pleasure to me to think that she will give back the little property to my sister’s child.  You will have your mother’s, and thus it will all come together again.’

‘Ah!’ said Captain Broughton.  He had his own ideas about property, and did not, even under existing circumstances, like to hear that his aunt considered herself at liberty to leave the acres away to one who was by blood quite a stranger to the family.

‘Does Patience know of this?’ he asked.

‘Not a word,’ said Miss Le Smyrger.  And then nothing more was said upon the subject.

On that afternoon he went down and received the parson’s benediction and congratulations with a good grace.  Patience said very little on the occasion, and indeed was absent during the greater part of the interview.  The two lovers then walked up to Oxney Colne, and there were more benedictions and more congratulations.  ’All went merry as a marriage bell’, at any rate as far as Patience was concerned.  Not a word had yet fallen from that dear mouth, not a look had yet come over that handsome face, which tended in any way to mar her bliss.  Her first day of acknowledged love was a day altogether happy, and when she prayed for him as she knelt beside her bed there was no feeling in her mind that any fear need disturb her joy.