“Your ring is on my finger as I write, and I never wore it with more willingness and pleasure than I do now, when it tells only of freedom and friendship.  I have had those words engraved on the inside of the ring.  Will you do the same with the token of friendship which you say you possess?  I was sorry to hear you had taken the trouble to get one made after the same pattern, and I have a little scold all ready for you.  Do not hide from your ladylove till after your marriage the little romance ‘between me and thee.’  Believe me, it will sound much better if told beforehand.  I am pleased to hear that your prospects are so bright, but you did not tell me half enough about your pretty English lassie, or in what direction her talents lie, but I can well believe that I am far in the shade so far as music goes.  I cannot tell you what you ask, Lancy, for my love has not been asked for in words; but I am very happy, and if my future holds nothing brighter than my present life, it will be well worth living, for the only shadow is the thought of poor papa’s sufferings.  And now, dear Lancy, good-bye.  This is my last letter to you, but if we ever meet again I think you will find that I am the same old Dexie.”

The letter had such a kind, honest ring to it that it quite relieved Lancy’s mind, and he wondered what Dexie would say if she knew that his ladylove was only a passable singer, and had no talent for music at all.  Truly, he had fallen in love with his opposite.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

“I say, Traverse!  I believe you are getting melancholy,” said Mr. Fenerty, as, seated in Guy Traverse’s office, he watched Guy bend over the papers on the desk before him, yet seeming to accomplish nothing.

Getting no response to his repeated sallies, he added: 

“What’s up! out with it!  If that pile of papers is in a tangle, say the word, and I’ll bring my mighty brain to bear on them, and set them in order for you in no time!  No?  Are the men going out on a strike, then? or is your great-grandma down with the measles?  Then, for Heaven’s sake, why such a doleful expression?  It is enough to give one the blues to look at you!” and he re-crossed his legs and looked searchingly at his friend.

“That’s all your nonsense, Fenerty!  I’m all right!  What’s the news?” and Traverse leaned back in his chair as if to resign himself to the inevitable.

“News! he asks for news, when I have come here expecting to find him boiling over with anxiety to impart news to someone!” and Fenerty rolled up his eyes in astonishment.  “However, now that I have looked at you, and seen the settled melancholy of those features, I am obliged to own that you do not look like a man to be congratulated.”

“Why should I be congratulated, and for what?  What joke are you struggling to get rid of, Fenerty?”

“’Pon honor, Traverse, I believe you are right!  The congratulations are due in some other quarter, yet who is he?”