Part 17 (1/2)
”Fare ye well Jack!” returned Harry, hi about what I have been telling you”
”Not a word,” shouted Jack, ”but I make one condition”
”What is that?”
”That I may be one of the party when Nell's first excursion to the face of the earth comes off!”
”So you shall, Jack, I promise you!”
A fresh throb of the machinery placed a yet more considerable distance between the friends Their voices sounded faintly to each other Harry, however, could still hear Jack shouting:
”I say! do you knohat Nell will like better than either sun, moon, or stars, after she's seen the whole of them?”
”No, Jack!”
”Why, you yourself, old fellow! still you! always you!” And Jack's voice died away in a prolonged ”Hurrah!”
Harry, after this, applied hi all his spare tiht her to read and to write, and such rapid progress did she ht have been said that she learnt by instinct Never did keen intelligence norance It was the wonder of all beholders
Sie became every day more and more attached to their adopted child, whose forood deal They plainly saw the nature of Harry's feelings towards her, and were far from displeased thereat They recollected that Siineer on his first visit to the old cottage, ”How can our son ever think of ? Where could a wife possibly be found suitable for a lad whose whole life must be passed in the depths of a coal mine?”
Well! now it seemed as if the most desirable companion in the world had been led to hi direct fro did take place, theat Coal Tohich they would never during their lives forget Si!
It must be remarked that another person wished for this union of Harry and Nell as ineer
Of course he was really interested in the happiness of the two young people But another motive, connected ider interests, influenced him to desire it
It has been said that James Starr continued to entertain a certain a appeared to justify it Yet that which had been --Nell was evidently the only person acquainted with it
Now, if fresh dangers were in store for the ainst, without sothe cause of the silence,” said James Starr very often, ”but what she has concealed froer would be danger to Harry as well as to the rest of us Therefore, a s happiness to the lovers, and safety to their friends, will be a goodhere below”
Thus, not illogically, reasoned James Starr He communicated his ideas to old Si, then, appeared to stand in the way of the match What, in fact, was there to prevent it?
They loved each other; the parents desired nothing better for their son
Harry's coed that he deserved it The ive the consent of her own heart
Why, then, if there were none to place obstacles in the way of this union--why, as night cahts in the uished, and all the inhabitants of Coal Town at rest within their dwellings--why did a looh the darkness?
What instinct guided this phantoes so narrow as to appear to be i, with eyes flashi+ng through the deepest darkness, co the shores of Lake Malcole, yet so carefully as hitherto to avoid notice? Why, bending towards the s, did he strive to catch, by listening, soment of the conversation within the closed shutters?
And, on catching a feords, why did he shake his fist with a esture towards the calm abode, while from between his set teeth issued these words in muttered fury, ”She and he? Never! never!”