368
WYLDER'S H.iJVD.
press her residence upon you. No; I've no doubt Miss
Lake is a very intelligent person, and, when not excited,
will see it clearly."
Jos Larkin took his leave a little abruptly. He did not
condescend to ask the Vicar whether he still entertained
Miss Lake's proposal.
"Well," thought the Vicar, "that munificent oner is
unavailing, it seems. The sum insufficient, great as it is;
and other difficulties in the way."
He was walking homewards, slowly and dejectedly; and
was now beginning to feel alarm lest the purchase of the
reversion should fail. The agreement was to have gone
up to London by this day's mail, and now could not reach
till the day after to-morrow — four-and-twenty hours
later than was promised. The attorney had told him it
was a " touch-and-go affair," and the whole thing might
be ofl in a moment; and if it should miscarry, what in-
evitable ruin yawned before him? Oh, the fatigue of
these monotonous agitations — this never-ending sus-
pense!
With the attorney it was different. Making the most
of his height, which he fancied added much to the aristo-
cratic effect of his presence, with his head thrown back,
and swinging his walking cane easily between his finger
and thumb by his side, he strode languidly through the
main street of Gylingden, in the happy belief that he was
making a sensation among the denizens of the town.
And so he moved on to the mill-road, on which he
entered, and was soon deep in the shadows of Redman's
Dell.
He opened the tiny garden-gate of Redman's Farm,
looking about him with a supercilious benevolence, like a
man conscious of bestowing a distinction. He was in-
wardly sensible of a sort of condescension in entering so
diminutive and homely a place.