He had wandered back to the front of the house, and sat upon the rustic bench beside the porch, with his elbows propped upon his knees, and his eyes hidden in his shaking hands, when a voice fell on his ear. ‘Neighbour!’ He raised his head. Abel Reddy stood before him. With something of the old instinct of hatred he had believed to be unconquerable he rose and straightened himself before the hereditary enemy. ‘Neighbour,’ said Reddy again. The word was pacific, but Mountain’s blurred eyes, dim with pain and dazzled by the sunlight, could not see the pity in his old enemy’s face, and he waited doggedly. ‘It’s come to my ears as you’re i’ sore trouble. So am I. Your trouble’s mine, though not so great for me as it is for you, I was wi’ Dick when he heard o’ your daughter’s danger, an’ what I’d suspected a long time I know now to be the truth. I did my best to keep ‘em apart--it was that as Dick was going to London for. It seemed to behove me to come to you and offer you my hand i’ your affliction. I take shame to myself that I didn’t mek an effort to end our quarrel long ago. We’re gettin’ on in life, Mr. Mountain, and we’ve got th’ excuse o’ hot blood no longer.’ Therewith he held out his hand, and Samson, with hanging head, took it with a growl, which might have been anathema or blessing. And as the life-long enemies stood so linked, a window was suddenly opened above, and Mrs. Mountain’s voice screamed to her husband, ‘Samson! Her’s alive! Her’s awake! ‘Both men looked up, and beheld an unexpected picture framed by the open window, Dick violently embraced by Mrs. Mountain, and submitting to the furious assault with obvious goodwill. ‘When the liquor’s out, why clink the cannikin?’ The story of Julia and her Romeo, like all other stories, had found its end, and merged a little later into the history of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Reddy. The family feud was buried, and Samson and Abel made very passable grandfathers and dwelt in peace one with another. Dick never told a living soul, not even Julia herself, of the stratagem by which Mrs. Jenny had succeeded in uniting them, and Mrs. Jenny, by complete reticence on the subject, disproved the time-worn calumny which declares woman’s inability to keep a secret. THE END End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Julia And Her Romeo: A Chronicle Of Castle Barfield, by David Christie Murray