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nothing for the village notion of his mother’s superiority to her aunt, did not give him much encouragement. But Longpuddle being no very large world, the two could not help seeing a good deal of each other while she was staying there, and, disdainful young woman as she was, she did seem to take a little pleasure in his attentions and advances.

“One day, when they were picking apples together, he asked ber te marry him, She had not expected anything so practical as that at so early a time, and was led by her surprise into a half-promise; at any rate, she did not absolutely refuse him, and accepted some little presenta that he made her.

“But he saw that her view of him was rather as a simple village lad than aa a young man to look up to, and be felt that be muat do something bold to secure her. So he said one day, ‘I am going away, to try to get into a better position than I can get here.’ In two or three weeks he wished her good-bye, and went away to Monksbury to superintend a farm, with a view to start as a farmer himself; and from there he wrote regularly to her, aa if their marriage were an understood thing. ;

“Now, Harriet liked the young man’s presents and the admiration of his eyes, but on paper he was less attractive to her. Her mother had been a school-mistress, and Harriet had besides a natural aptitude for peu-and-ink work, in days when to be a ready writer was not such a common thing as it is now, and when actual handwriting waa valued as an accomplishment in itself. Jack Winter’s performances in the shape of love-lettera quite jarred her city nerves and her finer taste, and when she answered one of them, in the lovely running band that she took such pride in, she very strictly and loftily bade him to practise with a pen and spelling-book if he wished to please her.