At the bottom of the slope he nearly ran against a man about to ascend.
'Can a jack-o'-lent believe his few senses on such a dark night, or can't he ?' exclaimed one whose utterance Darton recognized in a moment, despite its unexpectedness.

'I dare not swear he can, though I fain would!' The speaker was Johns.
Darton said he was glad of this opportunity, bad as it was, of putting an end to the silence of years, and asked the dairyman what he was travelling that way for.
Japheth showed the old jovial confidence in a moment.

'I'm going to see your--relations--as they always seem to me,' he said--'Mrs.Hall and Sally.

Well, Charles, the fact is I find the natural barbarousness of man is much increased by a bachelor life, and, as your leavings were always good enough for me, I'm trying civilization here.' He nodded towards the house.
'Not with Sally--to marry her ?' said Darton, feeling something like a rill of ice water between his shoulders.
'Yes, by the help of Providence and my personal charms.

And I think I shall get her.