"Yes, because you are a man of principle, and I hope my pride of womanhood would have sustained me, but my heart would have broken, for with me it was a mad passion which absorbed my life before I had been in your presence half an hour," said Grace; and then added: "I do not any more wonder at the crimes which come of mismated marriages." Then Sedgwick told her how, when he left her side the first time, he took that ride and asked cabbie how much they would charge at Newgate to hang him. And they both laughed, but there were tears in the eyes of Grace even while she smiled. But she rallied in a moment and said: "Why not buy the place still? Except to leave my mother, I would be on that farm with you as happy a wife as ever lived. I would rather live upon that hill than in our great modern Babel, London." Just then the cutter went in and out of a "Thank-ee-mom"--a hollow between two snowdrifts--and Sedgwick bent and kissed his wife. "Thanks," said Grace. "That was a kiss on principle. That was a pure duty," said Sedgwick. Then he explained how venerable was the custom, and elaborated upon the respect due it because of its age and its usefulness to bashful lovers, because a youth must kiss the girl who goes sleighing with him whenever he comes to a "Thank-ee-mom" among the drifts. "What a poor old country England is," said Grace. "Why so?" asked Sedgwick. "Why, had we but had snowdrifts and 'Thank-ee-moms,' I would have made you kiss me three weeks sooner than you did," said Grace. "Did you want me to kiss you sooner than I did?" asked Sedgwick. "O, you blind darling!" said Grace. "When I read of your exploit before the church in Devonshire, I told Jack and Rose that I would like to kiss that man. Then he told me who the man was, and after all I had to wait so long I began to fear he would never give me a chance to carry out my desire." "Is that true, Gracie?" asked Sedgwick. "Indeed it is," she replied, and then she quickly continued, "Does it drift badly along here?" "Pretty badly," answered Sedgwick. "Then, love," answered Grace, "buy the farm by all means and at all hazards." "I believe I will," said Sedgwick. "I believe we need it in our business. If when we get back to England it shall be known that we have bought a home in America, and are having a house built, it will take all suspicions about a possible African enterprise away." And that day he bought the farm, and the next one to it, and told his brother he would send from England plans for a house to be built in the spring. Next day came the parting from the old home. Sedgwick promised to return before many months and stay longer, and he and his wife started for New York.