Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

344 RAVENSHOE.
CHAPTER LV.
ARCHER'S PROPOSAL.
Six weeks had passed since the date of Captain Archer's letter
before he presented himself in person at Casterton. They were
weary weeks enough to Mary, Lord Saltire, and Lady Ascot.
Lady Ascot was staying on at Casterton, as if permanently, at
the earnest request of Lord and Lady Hainault; and she stayed
on the more willingly that she and Mary might mingle their tears
about Charles Ravenshoe, whom they were never to see again.
The "previous marriage affair" had apparently fallen through
utterly. All the advertisements, were they worded never so
frantically, failed to raise to the surface the particular parishclerk required; and Lady Ascot, after having propounded a
grand scheme for personally inspecting every register in the
United Kingdom, which was pooh-poohed by Lord Saltire, now
gave up the matter as a bad job; and Lord Saltire himself began
to be puzzled and uneasy, and once more to wonder whether or
no Maria was not mistaken after all. Mackworth was still very
ill, though slowly recovering. The younger Tiernay, who was
nursing him, reported that his head seemed entirely gone, although
he began to eat voraciously, and, if encouraged, would take exercise. He would now walk far and fast, in silence, with the
kind priest toiling after him. But his wilful feet always led him
to the same spot. Whether they rambled in the park, whether
they climbed the granite tors of the moor, or whether they followed the stream up through the woods, they always ended their
walk at the same place, - at the pool among the tumbled boulders,
under the dark western headland, where Cuthbert's body had been
found. And here the priest would sit looking seaward, as if his
life and his intellect had'come to a full stop here, and he was
waiting patiently till a gleam of light should come from beyond.
William was at Ravenshoe, in full possession of the property.
He had been born a gamekeeper's son, and brought up as a groom.
He had now 10,0001. a year; and was going to marry the fisherman's daughter, his own true love; as beautiful, as sweettempered a girl as any in the three kingdoms. It was one of
the most extraordinary rises in life that had ever taken place.
Youth, health, and wealth, - they must produce happiness. Why
no, not exactly in his case. He believed Charles was dead, and
he knew, if that was the case, that the property was his; but he