with them empty, and carrying them off to the outhouse.

A triumphant look lit up his face when, a little later in the
afternoon, he sent into the vale to the dairy, and invited Margery
and her father to his house to supper.

She was not unsociable that day, and, her father expressing a hard
and fast acceptance of the invitation, she perforce agreed to go with
him. Meanwhile at home, Jim made himself as mysteriously busy as
before in those rooms of his, and when his partner returned he too
was asked to join in the supper.

At dusk Hayward went to the door, where he stood till he heard the
voices of his guests from the direction of the low grounds, now
covered with their frequent fleece of fog. The voices grew more
distinct, and then on the white surface of the fog there appeared two
trunkless heads, from which bodies and a horse and cart gradually
extended as the approaching pair rose towards the house.

When they had entered Jim pressed Margery's hand and conducted her up
to his rooms, her father waiting below to say a few words to the
senior lime-burner.

'Bless me,' said Jim to her, on entering the sitting-room; 'I quite
forgot to get a light beforehand; but I'll have one in a jiffy.'

Margery stood in the middle of the dark room, while Jim struck a
match; and then the young girl's eyes were conscious of a burst of
light, and the rise into being of a pair of handsome silver
candlesticks containing two candles that Jim was in the act of