seen the power she had over his mind. Lucy was artless and affectionate,
as well as prudent: now that her only real objection to the match was
lessened, she did not torment him, to try her power; but acknowledged
her attachment to him, and they were married.

Sir Plantagenet Mowbray's agent was much astonished that Lucy did not
prefer him, because he was a much richer man than Pierce Marvel; and
Miss Milly Harrison was also astonished that Mr. Marvel did not prefer
her to such a country girl as Lucy, especially when she had a thousand
pounds more _to_ her fortune. But, notwithstanding all this
astonishment, Marvel and his wife were perfectly happy.

It was now the fifth year after old Mr. Pearson's death. Wright was at
this time the richest of the three nephews; for the money that he had
laid out in draining Holland fen began to bring him in twenty per cent.
As to Marvel, he had exchanged some of his finest acres for the warren
of silver sprigs, the common full of thistles, and the marsh full of
reeds: he had lost many guineas by his sheep and their jackets, and many
more by his ill-fenced plantations: so that counting all the losses from
the failure of his schemes and the waste of his time, he was a thousand
pounds poorer than when he first came into possession of Clover-hill.

Goodenough was not, according to the most accurate calculations, one
shilling richer or poorer than when he first began the world. "Slow and
sure," said his friends: "fair and softly goes far in a day. What he has
he'll hold fast; that's more than Marvel ever did, and may be more than
Wright will do in the end. He dabbles a little in _experiments_, as he
calls them: this he has learned from his friend Marvel; and this will
come to no good."