\"ay; i keep saying it to myself, \"hale is dead!\" but it doesn\"t make it anythe more real. hale is dead for all that. he went to bed well, to allappearance, last night, and was quite cold this morning when myservant went to call him.\"

\"where? i don\"t understand!\"

\"at oxford. he came to stay with me; hadn\"t been in oxford thisseventeen years--and this is the end of it.\"

not one word was spoken for above a quarter of an hour. then mr.

thornton said:

\"and she!\" and stopped full short.

\"margaret you mean. yes! i am going to tell her. poor fellow! how fullhis thoughts were of her all last night! good god! last night only. andhow immeasurably distant he is now! but i take margaret as my childfor his sake. i said last night i would take her for her own sake. well, itake her for both.\"

mr. thornton made one or two fruitless attempts to speak, before hecould get out the words:

\"what will bee of her!\"

\"i rather fancy there will be two people waiting for her: myself for one. iwould take a live dragon into my house to live, if, by hiring such a

chaperon, and setting up an establishment of my own, i could make myold age happy with hāving margaret for a daughter. but there are thoselennoxes!\"

\"who are they?\" asked mr. thornton with trembling interest.

\"oh, smart london people, who very likely will think they\"ve the bestright to her. captain lennox married her cousin--the girl she wasbrought up with. good enough people, i dare say. and there\"s her aunt,mrs. shaw. there might be a way open, perhaps, by my offering tomarry that worthy lady! but that would be quite a pis aller. and thenthere\"s that brother!\"

\"what brother? a brother of her aunt\"s?\"

\"no, no; a clever lennox, (the captain\"s a fool, you must understand) ayoung barrister, who will be setting his cap at margaret. i know he hashad her in his mind this five years or more: one of his chums told me asmuch; and he was only kept back by her want of fortune. now that willbe done away with.\"