'Tell him,' said Patience, not attending to the latter portion of her
friend's last speech, 'that it cannot be,--make him understand, you
know--and tell him also that the matter shall be thought of no more.'
The matter had, at any rate, been spoken of no more, but the young
farmer still remained a bachelor, and Helpholme still wanted a
mistress. But all this came back upon the parson's mind when his
daughter told him that she was about to leave him.

'Yes, dearest,' she said; and as she spoke, she now knelt at his knees.
'I have been asked in marriage, and I have given myself away.'

'Well, my love, if you will be happy--'

'I hope I shall; I think I shall. But you, papa?'

'You will not be far from us.'

'Oh, yes; in London.'

'In London.'

'Captain Broughton lives in London generally.'

'And has Captain Broughton asked you to marry him?'

'Yes, papa--who else? Is he not good? Will you not love him? Oh, papa,
do not say that I am wrong to love him?'

He never told her his mistake, or explained to her that he had not
thought it possible that the high-placed son of the London great man