"I am, yours respectfully,

"SUSAN MERTON.

"P. S.--Father has been confined by rheumatism, and I have not been
well this last month."


Meadows turned away from the messenger, and said quietly, "Tell Miss
Merton I will come, if possible." He then galloped off, and as soon as
there was no one in sight gave vent to his face and his exulting soul.

Now he congratulated himself on his goodness in making a certain vow
and his firmness in keeping it.

"I kept out of their way, and they have invited me; my conscience is
clear."

He then asked himself why Susan had invited him; and he could not but
augur the most favorable results from this act on her part. True, his
manner to her had never gone beyond friendship, but women, he argued,
are quick to discern their admirers under every disguise. She was dull
and out of spirits, and wrote for him to come to her; this was a great
point, a good beginning. "The sea is between her and George, and I am
here, with time and opportunity on my side," said Meadows; and as
these thoughts coursed through his heart, his gray nag, spurred by an
unconscious heel, broke into a hand-gallop, and after an hour and a
half hard riding they clattered into the town of Newborough.

The habit of driving hard bargains is a good thing for teaching a man