Employment was liberally given to him, and a high scale of remuneration awarded in payment. So far his affairs went well; but his hopes were but hopes coloured by a fervid and sanguine imagination. He was unconscious of the wide gulf which separated him--a young journeyman goldsmith--from the daughter of the representative of an ancient and wealthy house. Before his confident and imaginative eyes there did not present itself that long vista of years, through which, if unaided, he must pass to achieve the position which he himself felt it was fitting he should hold, before he could, in honesty and honour, ask Flora Wilton to become his wife. He saw not foreshadowed in the task to which it was his intention to devote himself the incessant application and trying toil essential to success; he counted not upon exhaustion of energy, repeated and vexing though common disappointments and retarding circumstances, all to be surmounted before the goal he longed for could be reached. He saw no impediment which steadfast faith and unwavering perseverance might not overcome. He therefore entered upon his mission, not only to win wealth but to reap laurels, with a bold heart and a firm purpose, keeping ever in his eyes, as a tutelary spirit, the beautiful form of Flora Wilton, so that he might ever be conscious of the value of the prize for which he was contending, and never, never grow faint-hearted or weary while prosecuting his labour of love. Flora Wilton received his letter. She perused it many times and with no little emotion. It came to her as a new opposition to her hopes, raised up in a most unexpected quarter, and, with womanly instinct, she perceived the important influence a knowledge of Hal’s sudden reducement to poverty would have upon her father’s aversion to a union between them; but she was woman enough, too, to feel that it strengthened her resistance to her father’s design. She wept as she considered that this sudden change in his circumstances must afflict the high spirit of her lover, and she heartily wished that at the moment she had control of a fortune that she might place it at his disposal. There was no absolute engagement existing between them; so far it had been a mutual love-confession, springing out of an accidental circumstance, but Flora now construed it into one. “Had he been wealthy and of high standing, what has passed between us might not be considered actually binding on the free action of either,” she ruminated “but now misfortune has overtaken him, I cannot in honour release him if I wished. I do not wish to do so--no, oh no, Hal--I love you so very, very dearly, I would sooner die now than we should be separated for ever, and both live on.”