CHAPTER XIX.
"I hardly like taking thee out this wet day, Phineas--but it is a comfort to have thee." Perhaps it was, for John was bent on a trying errand.

He was going to communicate to Mr.Brithwood of the Mythe, Ursula's legal guardian and trustee, the fact that she had promised him her hand--him, John Halifax, the tanner.

He did it--nay, insisted upon doing it--the day after he came of age, and just one week after they had been betrothed--this nineteenth of June, one thousand eight hundred and one.
We reached the iron gate of the Mythe House;--John hesitated a minute, and then pulled the bell with a resolute hand.
"Do you remember the last time we stood here, John?
I do, well!" But soon the happy smile faded from his lips, and left them pressed together in a firm, almost painful gravity.

He was not only a lover but a man.

And no man could go to meet what he knew he must meet in this house, and on this errand, altogether unmoved.