'Oh, indeed,' said Captain Broughton.

'But it is a great, great pleasure to me to think that she will give
back the little property to my sister's child. You will have your
mother's, and thus it will all come together again.'

'Ah!' said Captain Broughton. He had his own ideas about property, and
did not, even under existing circumstances, like to hear that his aunt
considered herself at liberty to leave the acres away to one who was by
blood quite a stranger to the family.

'Does Patience know of this?' he asked.

'Not a word,' said Miss Le Smyrger. And then nothing more was said upon
the subject.

On that afternoon he went down and received the parson's benediction and
congratulations with a good grace. Patience said very little on the
occasion, and indeed was absent during the greater part of the
interview. The two lovers then walked up to Oxney Colne, and there were
more benedictions and more congratulations. 'All went merry as a
marriage bell', at any rate as far as Patience was concerned. Not a word
had yet fallen from that dear mouth, not a look had yet come over that
handsome face, which tended in any way to mar her bliss. Her first day
of acknowledged love was a day altogether happy, and when she prayed for
him as she knelt beside her bed there was no feeling in her mind that
any fear need disturb her joy.

I will pass over the next three or four days very quickly, merely saying
that Patience did not find them so pleasant as that first day after her