He dreamed of her all night, and wakened up the next morning to a calculation of how far his income would allow him to furnish his pretty new parsonage with that crowning blessing, a wife.

For a day or two he did up little sums, and sighed, and thought of Ellinor, her face listening with admiring interest to his sermons, her arm passed into his as they went together round the parish; her sweet voice instructing classes in his schools--turn where he would, in his imagination Ellinor's presence rose up before him.
The consequence was that he wrote an offer, which he found a far more perplexing piece of composition than a sermon; a real hearty expression of love, going on, over all obstacles, to a straightforward explanation of his present prospects and future hopes, and winding up with the information that on the succeeding morning he would call to know whether he might speak to Mr.Wilkins on the subject of this letter.

It was given to Ellinor in the evening, as she was sitting with Miss Monro in the library.

Mr.Wilkins was dining out, she hardly knew where, as it was a sudden engagement, of which he had sent word from the office--a gentleman's dinner-party, she supposed, as he had dressed in Hamley without coming home.

Ellinor turned over the letter when it was brought to her, as some people do when they cannot recognise the handwriting, as if to discover from paper or seal what two moments would assure them of, if they opened the letter and looked at the signature.