HARK FORRARD! t57 



you tlie subject shall never again pass my lips ; 

 but I mean to bave my innings tbis time, and 

 I'll bet a hundred you will thank me from the 

 bottom of your heart before we have done. 

 First and foremost, read that.' 



Then he handed Mrs. Danby's letter to 

 Reginald, who read it once, twice, three times, 

 but never a word said he till he had quite 

 finished, and then, as he handed it back to 

 Alfred Acton, he said, 'Impossible! too good 

 to be true ; your sister must be mistaken.' 



' That I swear she is not' said Acton. ' I 

 never yet knew Mary make half a mistake in a 

 case of this sort ; and besides, it is all as plain as 

 a pikestaff tome now. When I proposed to her 

 and she refused me, I had the cheek to ask her 

 if her heart was her own, and she told me it 

 wasn't, and I now feel sure the reason it wasn't 

 her own was because you had got it.' 



' Well, but how can that be ? ' said Reginald. 

 ' You remember how jolly you and she and I 

 were the first three or four days of the pas- 



