“Go to sleep now,” she said, “and fret no more.  You can leave the rest to me.”

So he blessed her for the wonder she was, and, with the load lifted from his heart, soon slept like a child.

Milly Bird took an early chance to see William, and what passed between them would have been very exciting to know and perchance an interesting side-glance on human nature; but none ever heard it save their Maker; and not Jonas himself, though he was cruel inquisitive, ever larned no details.

“’Tis no matter,” said Milly to her husband.  “We had a tell about it, and William’s all right and won’t want no more money.  He’s a very clever chap and ain’t wishful for nobody to hear tell of his doings in the past, least of all poor Daisy.  So that’s that.  And there shan’t be no ill blood and there shan’t be no more cash, and all friends notwithstanding.”

Which fell out just as the remarkable woman ordained it should.

No.  X

THE AMBER HEART

The Lord chooses queer tools to do His purpose and we know that the stone the builders rejected was took by Him to be head of the corner; but in the case of the amber heart, it might be too much to say that the way that particular object worked for good was His almighty idea, for the reason, there was something a bit devious about the whole matter, and you’d be inclined to think a woman’s craft rather than the Everlasting Will was at the bottom of the business.

And amber ain’t a stone, anyhow, for while some people say ‘tis sea-gulls’ tears petrified by sea water, and others, equally clever, tell me it comes out of a whale, yet in either case you couldn’t call it a mineral substance; and let that be as it will, what sea-gulls have got to cry about is a subject hidden from human understanding, though doubtless they’ve got their troubles like all mortal flesh.

Well, there was four of ’em—­two maidens and two young men—­and James White, the farmer at Hartland and Mary Jane White his sister, were two, and Cora Dene, who lived along with her old widow aunt, Mrs. Sarah Dene, was the third of the bunch, and Nicholas Gaunter, who worked as cowman at Hartland Farm, came fourth.

And at the beginning of the curious tale James White was tokened to Mrs. Dene’s niece, while his cowman had got engaged to Mary Jane.  Folk said none of ’em was particular well suited, but the thing had fallen out as such matters will, and there weren’t no base of real love behind the engagements, except in the case of White’s sister.

There’s no doubt James White loved Cora Dene for her cooking, as well he might, because she was a wonder in that art.  She was also a very pretty woman, with a headpiece well furnished within as well as beautiful without, and when she first took James, Cora honestly believed she loved him and liked the thought of reigning at Hartland.  But more than the love of the couple had gone to the match, because Mrs. Dene, Cora’s aunt, was very wishful for it to happen on the girl’s account and meant to make other arrangements for her own comfort.