Would she wait? Aye, a lifetime if need were; and though she did not say these words, her look was enough for Norman. At the station I pointed triumphantly to a couple of bales containing pieces of red flannel for rheumatic old folk at Overford, striped shirting for working men, and sundry clothing materials for bestowal on families where the children were out of proportion to the income. Norman poked holes in the papers to verify my list, and I added triumphantly, "There are blankets besides; but we shall not require your aid in seeing to our purchases, as they do not go to King's Court under our personal charge. They will be delivered at the house." We were complimented on our marketing, and a hope expressed that our shopping might always be as expeditiously performed and to equally good purpose. We bent in acknowledgment of the compliment, and then I was going to make some allusion to what had passed during the examination before the justices; but Norman stopped me. "Berty, dear," he said, "we will say no more about the matter until Thursday. I have told all, and no one credits me with anything worse than a rash act, of which I am now ashamed. Let us be as happy as we can. Whatever comes, I shall have strength to bear it." He looked at Lucy, pressing more closely the little hand which rested confidingly in his, and receiving a responsive pressure. Look and clasp said more than words. They meant from him, "You are mine, whether in prosperity or adversity." And hers replied, "Yours in life and till death." CHAPTER VIII. MR. FISHER was an object of great interest during the interval between the magistrates' sittings. His landlady declared that no pleasanter gentleman had ever stopped at The Arms. His residence there brought almost too many customers, for people were constantly dropping in to catechize the servants, to the hindrance of work, but little to their own satisfaction. On Wednesday, Frith was seen to carry a huge packet of letters across to The Arms, and on the contents of one, the biggest of all, it was supposed the squire's fate would depend. Mr. Fisher's landlady was so eager to gather information, that she waited on her guest herself, but could only report that he had put the letters aside and gone on with his dinner, as though they were of no consequence. The Overford butcher, who was especially eager for news, remarked, "The gentleman had such a steak for his dinner to-day as few people get in a country place. And the mistress here knows how a steak should be sent up. The gentleman showed his sense by not letting it get cold. Letters will keep. I thought that when I cut that steak, 'He shall have a good one. A man is always kinder-disposed when his meat has been tender and he has made a good dinner.'"