as he shook hands.

"I was coming in before," he said, impressively, "after what I heard this
afternoon, but I had to drive over to Thorpe."

"You 'eard it?" inquired the carpenter, in an incredulous voice.

"Certainly," said the dealer, "and very sorry I was. Sorry for one
thing, but glad for another."

The carpenter opened his mouth and seemed about to speak. Then he
checked himself suddenly and gazed with interest at the ingenuous dealer.

"I'm glad," said Mr. Miller, slowly, as he nodded at a friend of Mrs.
Tidger's who had just come in with a long face, "because now that Mrs.
Pullen is poor, I can say to her what I couldn't say while she was rich."

Again the astonished carpenter was about to speak, but the dealer hastily
checked him with his hand.

"One at a time," he said. "Mrs. Pullen, I was very sorry to hear this
afternoon, for your sake, that you had lost all your money. What I
wanted to say to you now, now that you are poor, was to ask you to be
Mrs. Miller. What d'ye say?"

Mrs. Pullen, touched at so much goodness, wept softly and said, "Yes."
The triumphant Miller took out his handkerchief--the same that he had
used the previous night, for he was not an extravagant man--and tenderly
wiped her eyes.