shop. He was in possession; it was the largest in the town,
combining fruit with vegetables, and he thought it would form a home
worthy even of her some day. Might he not run up to town to see her?

She met him by stealth, and said he must still wait for her final
answer. The autumn dragged on, and when Randolph was home at
Christmas for the holidays she broached the matter again. But the
young gentleman was inexorable.

It was dropped for months; renewed again; abandoned under his
repugnance; again attempted; and thus the gentle creature reasoned
and pleaded till four or five long years had passed. Then the
faithful Sam revived his suit with some peremptoriness. Sophy's son,
now an undergraduate, was down from Oxford one Easter, when she again
opened the subject. As soon as he was ordained, she argued, he would
have a home of his own, wherein she, with her bad grammar and her
ignorance, would be an encumbrance to him. Better obliterate her as
much as possible.

He showed a more manly anger now, but would not agree. She on her
side was more persistent, and he had doubts whether she could be
trusted in his absence. But by indignation and contempt for her
taste he completely maintained his ascendency; and finally taking her
before a little cross and altar that he had erected in his bedroom
for his private devotions, there bade her kneel, and swear that she
would not wed Samuel Hobson without his consent. 'I owe this to my
father!' he said

The poor woman swore, thinking he would soften as soon as he was
ordained and in full swing of clerical work. But he did not. His