enough to attract the poor young man, to whom the feeling so produced
was new and full of charms. He left a home where the certainty of
being thwarted made him chary in expressing his wishes; where no
tones of love ever fell on his ear, save those addressed to others;
where his presence or absence was a matter of utter indifference; and
when he entered Ty Glas, all, down to the little cur which, with
clamorous barkings, claimed a part of his attention, seemed to
rejoice. His account of his day's employment found a willing
listener in Ellis; and when he passed on to Nest, busy at her wheel
or at her churn, the deepened colour, the conscious eye, and the
gradual yielding of herself up to his lover-like caress, had worlds
of charms. Ellis Pritchard was a tenant on the Bodowen estate, and
therefore had reasons in plenty for wishing to keep the young
Squire's visits secret; and Owen, unwilling to disturb the sunny calm
of these halcyon days by any storm at home, was ready to use all the
artifice which Ellis suggested as to the mode of his calls at Ty
Glas. Nor was he unaware of the probable, nay, the hoped-for
termination of these repeated days of happiness. He was quite
conscious that the father wished for nothing better than the marriage
of his daughter to the heir of Bodowen; and when Nest had hidden her
face in his neck, which was encircled by her clasping arms, and
murmured into his ear her acknowledgment of love, he felt only too
desirous of finding some one to love him for ever. Though not highly
principled, he would not have tried to obtain Nest on other terms
save those of marriage: he did so pine after enduring love, and
fancied he should have bound her heart for evermore to his, when they
had taken the solemn oaths of matrimony.

There was no great difficulty attending a secret marriage at such a
place and at such a time. One gusty autumn day, Ellis ferried them