‘He is not so bad as that,’ said Clara.

’Then the next day, or the day after.  Of course he is impatient, and does not see any earthly reason why his impatience should not be gratified.’

‘He is impatient.’

’And I suppose you hesitate because of your father’s death?

‘It seems but the other day does it not?’ said Clara.

’Everything seems but the other day to me.  It was but the other day that I myself was married.’

’And, of course, though I would do anything I could that he would ask me to do’

‘But would you do anything?’

’Anything that was not wrong I would.  Why should I not, when he is so good to me?’

’Then write to him, my dear, and tell him that it shall be as he wishes it.  Believe me, the days of Jacob are over.  Men don’t understand waiting now, and it’s always as well to catch your fish when you can.’

‘You don’t suppose I have any thought of that kind?’

’I am sure you have not and I’m sure that he deserves no such thought but the higher that are his deserts, the greater should be his reward.  If I were you, I should think of nothing but him, and I should do exactly as he would have me.’  Clara kissed her friend as she parted from her, and again resolved that all that woman’s sins should be forgiven her.  A woman who could give such excellent advice deserved that every sin should be forgiven her.  ’They’ll be married yet before the summer is over,’ Mrs Askerton said to her husband that afternoon.  ’I believe a man may have anything he chooses to ask for, if he’ll only ask hard enough.’

And they were married in the autumn, if not actually in the summer.  With what precise words Clara answered her lover’s letter I will not say; but her answer was of such a nature that he found himself compelled to leave Plaistow, even before the wheat was garnered.  Great confidence was placed in Bunce on that occasion, and I have reason to believe that it was not misplaced.  They were married in September yes, in September, although that letter of Will’s was written in August, and by the beginning of October they had returned from their wedding trip to Plaistow.  Clara insisted that she should be taken to Plaistow, and was very anxious when there to learn all the particulars of the farm.  She put down in a little book how many acres there were in each field, and what was the average produce of the land.  She made inquiry about four-crop rotation, and endeavoured, with Bunce, to go into the great subject of stall-feeding.  But Belton did not give her as much encouragement as he might have done.  ’We’ll come here for the shooting next year,’ he said; ‘that is, if there is nothing to prevent us.’

‘I hope there’ll be nothing to prevent us.’

’There might be, perhaps; but we’ll always come if there is not.  For the rest of it, I’ll leave it to Bunce, and just run over once or twice in the year.  It would not be a nice place for you to live at long.’