“But I am not great, and it would not be mercy.”

“As to that,” said Bella, “he has surely a right to his own opinion.”

On that evening she was sitting alone in her room when her mother came to her, and her eyes were red with weeping.  Pen and paper were before her, as though she were resolved to write, but hitherto no word had been written.

“Well, Bessy,” said her mother, sitting down close beside her; “is the deed done?”

“What deed, mamma?  Who says that I am to do it?”

“The deed is not the writing, but the resolution to write.  Five words will be sufficient,—if only those five words may be written.”

“It is for one’s whole life, mamma.  For his life, as well as my own.”

“True, Bessy;—that is quite true.  But equally true whether you bid him come or allow him to remain away.  That task of making up one’s mind for life, must at last be done in some special moment of that life.”

“Mamma, mamma; tell me what I should do.”

But this Mrs. Garrow would not do.  “I will write the words for you if you like,” she said, “but it is you who must resolve that they shall be written.  I cannot bid my darling go away and leave me for another home;—I can only say that in my heart I do believe that home would be a happy one.”

It was morning before the note was written, but when the morning came Bessy had written it and brought it to her mother.

“You must take it to papa,” she said.  Then she went and hid herself from all eyes till the noon had passed.  “Dear Godfrey,” the letter ran, “Papa says that you will return on Wednesday if I write to ask you.  Do come back to us,—if you wish it.  Yours always, Bessy.”

“It is as good as though she had filled the sheet,” said the Major.  But in sending it to Godfrey Holmes, he did not omit a few accompanying remarks of his own.

An answer came from Godfrey by return of post; and on the afternoon of the sixth of January, Frank Garrow drove over to the station at Penrith to meet him.  On their way back to Thwaite Hall there grew up a very close confidence between the two future brothers-in-law, and Frank explained with great perspicuity a little plan which he had arranged himself.  “As soon as it is dark, so that she won’t see it, Harry will hang it up in the dining-room,” he said, “and mind you go in there before you go anywhere else.”

“I am very glad you have come back, Godfrey,” said the Major, meeting him in the hall.

“God bless you, dear Godfrey,” said Mrs. Garrow, “you will find Bessy in the dining-room,” she whispered; but in so whispering she was quite unconscious of the mistletoe bough.

And so also was Bessy, nor do I think that she was much more conscious when that introduction was over.  Godfrey had made all manner of promises to Frank, but when the moment arrived, he had found the moment too important for any special reference to the little bough above his head.  Not so, however, Patty Coverdale.  “It’s a shame,” said she, bursting out of the room, “and if I’d known what you had done, nothing on earth should have induced me to go in.  I won’t enter the room till I know that you have taken it out.”  Nevertheless her sister Kate was bold enough to solve the mystery before the evening was over.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MISTLETOE BOUGH***