But at the end of that time he returned, and said with a joyful voice—­

“I have settled all, Mr. Will.  The parson of Welcombe will serve my church for two Sundays, and I am away for London town, to speak to Mr. Frank.”

“To London?  How wilt get there?”

“On Shanks his mare,” said Jack, pointing to his bandy legs.  “But I expect I can get a lift on board of a coaster so far as Bristol, and it’s no way on to signify, I hear.”

Cary tried in vain to dissuade him; and then forced on him a small loan, with which away went Jack, and Cary heard no more of him for three weeks.

At last he walked into Clovelly Court again just before supper-time, thin and leg-weary, and sat himself down among the serving-men till Will appeared.

Will took him up above the salt, and made much of him (which indeed the honest fellow much needed), and after supper asked him in private how he had sped.

“I have learnt a lesson, Mr. William.  I’ve learnt that there is one on earth loves her better than I, if she had but had the wit to have taken him.”

“But what says he of going to seek her?”

“He says what I say, Go! and he says what you say, Wait.”

“Go?  Impossible!  How can that agree with his letter?”

“That’s no concern of mine.  Of course, being nearer heaven than I am, he sees clearer what he should say and do than I can see for him.  Oh, Mr. Will, that’s not a man, he’s an angel of God; but he’s dying, Mr. Will.”

“Dying?”

“Yes, faith, of love for her.  I can see it in his eyes, and hear it in his voice; but I am of tougher hide and stiffer clay, and so you see I can’t die even if I tried.  But I’ll obey my betters, and wait.”

And so Jack went home to his parish that very evening, weary as he was, in spite of all entreaties to pass the night at Clovelly.  But he had left behind him thoughts in Cary’s mind, which gave their owner no rest by day or night, till the touch of a seeming accident made them all start suddenly into shape, as a touch of the freezing water covers it in an instant with crystals of ice.

He was lounging (so he told Amyas) one murky day on Bideford quay, when up came Mr. Salterne.  Cary had shunned him of late, partly from delicacy, partly from dislike of his supposed hard-heartedness.  But this time they happened to meet full; and Cary could not pass without speaking to him.

“Well, Mr. Salterne, and how goes on the shipping trade?”

“Well enough, sir, if some of you young gentlemen would but follow Mr. Leigh’s example, and go forth to find us stay-at-homes new markets for our ware.”

“What? you want to be rid of us, eh?”

“I don’t know why I should, sir.  We sha’n’t cross each other now, sir, whatever might have been once.  But if I were you, I should be in the Indies about now, if I were not fighting the queen’s battles nearer home.”