A
revelation seemed simultaneously to have broken upon him and Anne
while they were copying out the Sunday School Registers, that what
they had felt for each other all their lives was love--'real, true
love,' as Anne said to Emily, 'that never could have cared for
anybody else.'
Mrs. Fordyce's sharp eyes had seen what was coming, and accepted the
inevitable, quite as soon as Clarence had. She came and talked it
over with us, saying she was perfectly satisfied and happy. Martyn
was all that could be wished, and she was sincerely glad of the
connection with her old friends. So, in fact, was dear old Frank,
but he had been running about with his head full, and his eyes
closed, so that it was quite a shock to him to find that his little
Anne, his boon companion and playfellow, was actually grown up, and
presuming to love and be loved; and he could hardly believe that she
was really seven years older than her sister had been when the like
had begun with her. But if Anne must be at those tricks, he said,
shaking his head at her, he had rather it was with Martyn than
anybody else.
There was no difficulty as to money matters. In truth, Martyn was
not so good a match as an heiress, such as was Anne Fordyce, might
have aspired to, and her Lester kin were sure to be shocked; but
even if Clarence married, the Earlscombe living went for something
(though, by the bye, he has never held it), and the Fordyces only
cared that there should be easy circumstances.
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