his great distress, learned that she could never be his wife although
she had no other engagement. From her manner he realised that he had a
rival, and the knowledge plunged him into the deepest despair. After her
refusal he went to spend the night at one of his father's dairy farms, a
few miles down the river. Whilst supper was being prepared, word came
that Hardress's boat was being swamped, with every soul aboard.

The collegian, however, brought the boat safely to the shore, and
procured a room for his wife in the dairy-woman's cottage, passing her
off as a relative of Danny Mann's. She retired at once and Hardress and
Kyrle sat talking together of Anne Chute. The sight of his friend's
sufferings won Hardress's sympathies. He protested his disbelief in the
idea of another attachment, and recommended perseverance.

"Trust everything to me," he said. "For your sake I will take some pains
to become better known to this extraordinary girl, and you may depend on
it you shall not suffer in my good report."

When the household was asleep, Hardress went to his wife's room, and
found her troubled because of the strangeness of their circumstances.

"I was thinking," she said, "what a heart-break it would be to my father
if anyone put it into his head that the case was worse than it is. No
more would be wanting, but just a little word on a scrap of paper, to
let him know that he needn't be uneasy, and he'd know all in time."

The suggestion appeared to jar against the young husband's inclinations.
He replied that if she wished he would return with her to her home, and
declare the marriage.