He was in possession; it was the largest in the town, combining fruit with vegetables, and he thought it would form a home worthy even of her some day.

Might he not run up to town to see her?
She met him by stealth, and said he must still wait for her final answer.
The autumn dragged on, and when Randolph was home at Christmas for the holidays she broached the matter again.

But the young gentleman was inexorable.
It was dropped for months; renewed again; abandoned under his repugnance; again attempted; and thus the gentle creature reasoned and pleaded till four or five long years had passed.

Then the faithful Sam revived his suit with some peremptoriness.

Sophy's son, now an undergraduate, was down from Oxford one Easter, when she again opened the subject.