grass. "I want to ask you something," she said. "What is it?" he asked. "Rose is well enough for me to go," said Jessie in a low voice. She and Rose were like sisters now. "She can do without me, I must go and find a situation." Her voice shook, but Gerald actually could not speak. " Come out up the road," he said at last, hoarsely, and they went. "Miss Harewood," he said, when he had conquered his emotion and could speak calmly, "I am a pauper, I don't know how to earn money, but I am going to try. Will you promise never to marry any one but me. Am I a selfish brute to ask you such a thing, when it may be years, or never, before I have a home to offer you? "
Jessie had engaged herself to Miss Pringle for board and lodging only. She was even more unthinking now -- she actually engaged herself to Mr. Ashley without the prospect of either!
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The Conclusion -- Hollywood style a100 years before its time!
CHAPTER 15
A DOUBLE EVENT.
Gerald was appointed district agent for the sale of LIFEBUOY SOAP.
He would willingly have put in a good word for Mr. Atherton with Rose, but good words were not needed. Mr. Atherton's bright dark eyes were more eloquent than her brother's tongue. She rapidly regained strength, and one day late in the spring the fat rector, as he sat on his lawn eating some early strawberries, had a note put into his hands.
"A double wedding!" he said, piteously, "really, it's too much for one morning-'s work!"
"Come, come!" said his wife, "you don't often have a chance of looking at two such pretty brides, so don't grumble!"
Gerald Ashley proved himself to possess such remarkable commercial abilities, that he rapidly rose until he was making a large income, as the sale of LIFEBUOY SOAP increased every day. The public found what a safeguard and blessing it proved in every household, and its fame grew in every country, so that it was very hard for the makers to keep up with the demand.
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After some years Mr. Atherton retired; be bought land, because his wife, to whom he was more devoted even than to business, loved the country, and wished for a pleasure-farm where her own and her brother's children could romp in the hayfields in the holidays. Gerald succeeded him, and became head agent for LIFEBUOY SOAP in that district, and in time he grew as rich a man as he had been before the bank failure.
"I met an old friend in town today, darling," he said one evening, "he too was looking in at the carriage factory to buy a new carriage as a birthday present for someone at home!"
"Who was it, Gerald, dear?" asked Jessie. She had her arm through his, and they were strolling through the rose bushes growing thickly in the lovely old garden surrounding their pretty house.
"Why -- it was Dr. Fairleigh, love! He has just been appointed physician in ordinary to Her Majesty!" Jessie opened her large brown eyes. "And he is moving into Cavendish Square. He tells me he too owes all his fortune to LIFEBUOY SOAP. When you found the Missing Bag, he had never seen the soap, though he had heard a great deal about it, and he says its use with his patients did him more good than any drug in the pharmacopoeia. His reputation for rapid cures spread all over the South Downs, and then to London. He came to town, and from the bottom of the ladder as a country practitioner, he has now his foot on the top rung, and I expect lie will be a baronet before he dies!"
"And all owing to the Missing Bag!" said Jessie, softly.
"Yes, to what was in the Missing Bag," said her husband, "which has given me what one day I despaired of having -- a home of my own, the three prettiest children in the country, and best of all," he whispered, putting his arm round her, "the careless little thing who lost her bag --my dearest treasure, my little Jessie!"
THE END
