affects my future well-being. Can't you guess, Jenifer?" "No," she replied, "I am not good at guessing." "It concerns you," he said. "I don't know what you mean," she said, as a thought of what he might mean flashed across her mind. "I am come home again to ask the old question." "I am afraid then I must give you my old answer," she replied. 66 Won't you take pity on me?" he said, leaning across the hedge and looking into her eyes. "You hinted to me years ago that you would not say 'no' if you were older, and now you steel your heart against me. Is it because of my old unfaithfulness that you disdain me? Surely it is not an unpardonable sin." "No," she said, "I have forgiven and forgotten that. I do not despise you, I do not steel my heart against you; I simply say I do not love you as a wife should love her husband, that is all." "But that might come," he pleaded; "I am willing to trust to the future for that. You believe I love you dearly, Jenifer? "I see no reason to doubt that," she replied; "but there is an obstacle apart from my own feelings. I could never leave my poor old father and mother; they are almost entirely dependent upon me now." "Jenifer, Jenifer," he remonstrated, "that is one reason why you should listen to me. If you were my wife you wouldn't have to slave as you do now, and your father and mother should not want while I had a crust to share with them. I promise you that." "Don't press me any more," she said, bursting into tears, "I can't bear it, I must go in," and Mark was left in doubt as to what the issue would be. 235 CHAPTER XVIII. TO-MORROW. This year I slept and woke with pain, And that my hold on life would break In Memoriam. "WHAT are 'ee crying for ?" asked Rebecca Trewhella, noticing the tears on Jenifer's pale face. "Oh, it is nothing of consequence, mother," was the answer. ""Tes somefin' young Mr. Mark said to you," returned Rebecca. talkin' to 'ee ovver the wall. falled out again, have 'ee ?" "I seed un You haven't "No, mother, no," answered Jenifer, "but something he said brought the tears to my eyes. That is all; please don't ask me anything more about it." Mrs. Trewhella remembered Mark's words, and shrewdly suspected that Jenifer's agitation had something to do with the same subject, and therefore, wily diplomatist as she imagined herself to be, decided there and then to carry out her promise to Jenifer's suitor by making a few judicious remarks. "Mr. Mark was a owld lover of yours, Jenny," she observed, "and I shouldn't be surprised ef he was a bit fond of you still. He would meeake a good husband, for he's a clever young man, and his father towld me that he es seeavin' money fast. And he's a good-lookin' fellow ef ever there was wan." "Handsome es as handsome does," interposed Daniel between two great puffs |