'This don't become you, Charles--it really do not.

If I had done such a thing you would have sworn I was a curst no'thern fool to be drawn off the scent by such a red-herring doll-oll-oll.' Farmer Darton responded in such sharp terms to this laconic opinion that the two friends finally parted in a way they had never parted before.
Johns was to be no groomsman to Darton after all.

He had flatly declined.

Darton went off sorry, and even unhappy, particularly as Japheth was about to leave that side of the county, so that the words which had divided them were not likely to be explained away or softened down.
A short time after the interview Darton was united to Helena at a simple matter-of fact wedding; and she and her little girl joined the boy who had already grown to look on Darton's house as home.
For some months the farmer experienced an unprecedented happiness and satisfaction.

There had been a flaw in his life, and it was as neatly mended as was humanly possible.