Do what he would, he could not get out of his liking for William Brook, and Ellin was dear to him as the apple of his eye. He had been in love himself once, and knew what it meant; little as you would believe it of a stout old red-faced lawyer; knew that both must be miserable. So much the better for Brook--but what of Ellin? "One would think it was you who had had your lover sent to the right-about!" he wrathfully began to Aunt Hester, one morning when he came upon her in tears as she sat at her sewing. "I'd hide my face if I were you, unless I could show a better." "It is that I am so sorry for Ellin, John," replied Aunt Hester, meekly wiping her tears. "I--I am afraid that some people bear sorrow worse than others." "Now what do you mean by that?" "Oh, not much," sighed Aunt Hester, not daring to allude to the dread lying latent in her own mind--that Ellin might fade away like her mother. "I can see what a sharp blow it has been to the child, John, and so--and so I can but feel it myself." "Sharp blow! Deuce take it all! What business had young Brook to get talking to her about such rubbish as love?" "Yes indeed, it is very unfortunate," said Aunt Hester. "But I do not think he has talked to her, John; I imagine he is too honourable to have said a single word. They have just gone on loving one another in secret and in silence, content to live in the unspoken happiness that has flooded their two hearts." "Unspoken fiddlestick? What a simpleton you are, Hester!" Mr. Delorane turned off in a temper. He knew it must have been a "sharp blow" to Ellin, but he did not like to hear it so stated to his face. Banging the door behind him, he was crossing the hall to the office--which made a sort of wing to the house--when he met William Brook. "Will you allow me to speak to you, sir?" asked the young man in a tone of deprecation. And, though the lawyer had the greatest mind in the world to tell him NO and send him head-foremost out again, he thought of Ellin, he thought of his dead friend, Roger Brook; so he gave a growl, and led the way into the dining-room. In his modest winning way, William Brook spoke a little of the trouble that had come upon their family--how deeply sorry he was that Ellin and he should have learnt to care for one another for all time, as it was displeasing to Mr. Delorane---- "Hang it, man," interrupted the lawyer irascibly, too impatient to listen further--"what on earth do you propose to yourself? Suppose I did not look upon it with displeasure?--are you in a position to marry her?" "You would not have objected to me had we been as we once were--prosperous, and----" "What the dickens has that to do with it!" roared the lawyer. "Our business lies with the present, not the past."