"Got what?" Ralph said, turning suddenly round. "Got the farm," was the reply. "We jumped to conclusions too soon on Saturday. Jewell says our offer has been accepted." "Accepted!" "Ay. Here is the letter, if you like to read it. Shut up your portmanteau, and take it out of sight. You are not going abroad yet awhile." Ruth, who had risen to her feet on William's sudden appearance, now ran out of the room to hide her tears. Ralph seized the lawyer's letter and read it slowly and carefully from beginning to end. Then he dropped into a chair and read it a second time. William stood and watched him, with a bright, eager smile lighting up his face. "It seems all right," Ralph said at length. "Ay, it's right enough, but I wish we had known earlier." "It would have saved us a good many anxious and painful hours." "Never mind. All's well that ends well." "Oh, we haven't got to the end yet," Ralph said, with a laugh. "If that lode turns out a frost, we shall wish that somebody else had got the place." "Never!" William said, almost vehemently. "No?" "I shall never regret we've got it, or rather that you have, though there isn't an ounce of tin in the whole place." "Why not?" "I don't know. One cannot give a reason for everything. But I have a feeling that this opens up a fresh page in the life of both of us." "That's true enough, but everything depends on the kind of page it will be." "I'm not worried about that. The thing that interests me is, the powers that be are not going to shunt us as they hoped. Lord St. Goram meant to drive me out of the parish, but I'm not going----" "Nor I," Ralph interposed, with a laugh; and he shut up the portmanteau, and pushed it against the wall. "We shall have to keep dark, however, till the deeds are signed," William said. "We must give Sir John no excuse for going back on his bargain. I'd wager my Sunday coat, if I were a betting man, that he hasn't the remotest idea we are the purchasers." "Won't he look blue when he discovers? You know how he hates me." "Ay, he has made no secret of that. It is rumoured, however, that he is going to live out of the country, and so he may not get to know for some time. However, we must walk warily till the thing is finally and absolutely settled. Also"--and William lowered his voice to a whisper--"you'd better say nothing yet to your sister." "Oh, but she knows," Ralph replied. William looked blank. "I told her on Saturday what we had been trying to do. I thought she might as well know when the thing, as we thought, had come to an end. Besides, she heard what you said when you came in." "I forgot all about her for the moment," William said absently. "Perhaps, after all, it is as well she knows. I hope, however, she will not feel in any way obligated to me." "My dear fellow, what are you talking about?" Ralph said, with a smile. "Why, we owe nearly everything to you."