ly be described as wonderful. They were intricately involved, of course, and there was no chance of their being clear

ried in June with all necessary éclat. Local papers described the event in glowing terms, appreciative friends said it was the prettiest wedding in years, and in due time Chèrie wrote and told Julia

came in from the office. Joost smiled sympathetically when he saw she had them, glad on her account; and she, almost unconscious

m home?" said Mijnheer;

your mother says, less expensive, but at such a time who would spare expense-if it were the fashion? I assure you I had literally nothing to eat at the time, or afterwards; your mother thinking it advisable a

He did not speak, it seemed he would not intrude upon her; there was something dog-like in this sympathy with what was not unde

othing of the subject. The smile brightened on his face. "Did it?" he answere

have some one with a head in the background; mother and I had to be the fore, so of course we could

from the town. Walking was the only way of getting to the place, except twice a week when a little cargo boat went down the canal, and took some hours about it. This was neither the day nor the time for the boat, Julia would have to walk; but, as she assured Mevrouw, she much preferred

she saw the heads of families smoking their after-dinner pipes, while their wives and daughters sat crocheting and watching the passersby. There were chairs with crimson velvet seats in most of the rooms, and funny little cabinet, or side-board things of brig

It was all very quiet and green around, and quiet and blue above, except for the larks singing rapturously. Certainly it was very good to be away from the Van Heigens, away from the ceaseless little reiteration of Mevrouw's talk, from the minute, punctilious conventions, from Joost's quiet gaze, from the proximity of the hateful, necessary blue daffodil. With a violent reb

of young horses started forward suddenly. Too suddenly for the comprehension of some children who were playing in the road; for a second or more they looked at the approaching waggon, then, when the necessity dawned

erstand anything. It certainly would have fared badly with him had she not followed up her cry by darting into the road, seizing him by the shoulder, and flinging him

e calmly that it was impossible to scramble to her feet in time, so she had better draw her legs up and trust to the wheels missing her. Then sudden

d herself up, then moving two paces to the side, stopped to put her hat straight with a calmness she did not quite feel. There was a volley of exclam

me into her eyes with the force of the blow, and she tu

there is nothing the matter, there is no reason why you should stand there and look at me; I assure you no one

some surly words, drove on. Julia sat on the bank by the roadside, and tried to brush the dust from her dress. The Englishman, after making some parting remarks to the waggoner, this time in Dutch, though still in the quiet, drawling voice which was much at variance with the language, had gone to pick up the basket. She wished she had thanked him for his timely assistance when she first scrambled to her feet, and gone on at once, then she could have done this necessary sitting down when he was out of sight, and come back for the stupid basket when she remembered it. But now she would have to thank him

y seen her once before, and her knowledge of the language was much better than his. And even if he had not been deceived, he would have been

" he said, as he crossed

swered, "tha

he subject quickly. He began to wipe the bottom of the basket, from which soup was dripping, talking the while of the

him, and then re

pecially since it also gives me the opportunity of offering you some apology for an unfortun

expected, and, to tell the truth, it did not altogether please her. She k

" she said; "there is no

a false impression,"

eared up now; no one who spoke with my father

tfit more than his moral one. When Rawson-Clew knew Julia better he came to th

t," he said; "I thi

e had received; it was the right shoulder which had been struck, and that hand was

asket back. "You

nly hurts me when I move that arm; I wi

have yo

to the vill

o straight home a

shoulder not being bad enough to make her want to give up this first hour of freedom. "My shoul

carry it for you?" he sugges

manage quite well. I expect you will want to go faster than I do." She spoke decidedly, and tu

," she exclaimed; "I mu

en bottle and put it in the baske

agree, if you would prefer to walk more slowly, I

ld not show either feeling, only accept what he offered and walk by his side, just as if no money was owed, and no letter, condescendingly cancelling the debt, had been written. She grew hot as she thought of that carefully worded letter, and hot when she thought of her father's relief thereat. And here, here was the m

it off with what credit she could. She glanced at the more than half-empty soup can. "I am afraid you are right," she said;

that?" h

he exercise beneficial; I have

surprised, and she

taken in such large quantities by any one like me. It is unbelievably good, it makes on

se, and her smile, like that of some other people

't; I meant just the whole life here; if you knew the peop

said; "I fancy there is a good deal of pudding about; in

o this afternoon. I also thought, though it is Tuesday, i

that many people appre

ay, nor your harvesting in spring. An endless succession of spring Sundays is

week-day work she had in h

with a Dutch fam

n," she said; "sort of s

w yesterday; I thought so at the time; y

cognised her. "We went for an excursion yes

ss the present time, and she was rather reckless how, so long as Rawson-Clew either talked himself, or seemed interested in what she said; also, it must be admitted, though it was to this man, it was something of a treat to talk freely again. So she gave him the best account she could, not only of the

described it, with that which he had imagined her to have led at Marbridge,

nventionality rather tr

ered; "when I am it will be no wors

was not really Bohemian. "Surely," he said, "you have n

am concerned. One day I hope to be able to give it up and retire; when I do I shall wear corduroy breeches and if I

it some time for its fulfilment, especially the corduroy. I doubt if you will achieve that th

y would; but, you see, I should be retiring from them as well

or that; do you think women ever can affo

lain; not much, certainly, seeing what they lose, but they have it. When you c

," he remarked; "it appears so

ill," she a

nearly every woman is plain, and according to your experience, every one,

test notion of the importance of their neighbours' eyes. It is a perfect treat to be out alone,

hought every one

ks could get more evenings than housemaids, and nursery governesses might naturally expect a minus number, if that were possible. There would b

you do?"

er dinner of a day. It will take ages, Mevrouw learns very slowly, and Denah will know better than to hurry matters; she

e a little leisure? Some one alwa

sfactorily out of the way when I am anywhere on the premises. Not that Mijnheer Joost talks to me when

matters is not always wro

for my handsome and able sister to marry the ambitious and able nephew of a bishop; they are the two halves that make one whole. Denah and Joost would live a perfectly ideal pudding life; he with his flowers-that is his work, y

uld have imagined that what was inc

incongruity; but I don't really care either way, whether things are incongruous or suitable, I e

l in revolt against convention, saying what she deemed daring for the sake of saying it, and

lly an end in

purpose, and I am here for no purpose too; you might quite well have come to this little town for amusement, and I have come for the money I might earn as a companion. Or you might have drifted here by accident, as I might, without a

"I am going through the village; we may as well go t

as by the footpath which turned off to the right. "I could

iged to yield it; then, with another word of thank

se and her own, still it gave him food for reflection about her, and the apparent incongruity of her present surroundings. On the wh

o be; and if that was not quite what his wife had persuaded herself and half Marbridge to think him, surely no one was to blame. The mistake made was about the Captain's wife and daughters and position in the town; Rawson-Clew, in the first instance, never gave them a thought; the Captain was a detached person in his mind, and, as such, a possible danger to his cousin's loose cash. He went to No. 27 to talk plainly to the man, not to tell him he was a shark and an adventurer; it was the Captain himself who translated and exaggerated thus; not even to tell him what he thought, that he was a worthless old sponge, but to make it plain that things would not go on as they had been doing. The girl's interruption had been annoying, so ill-timed and out of place; s

erest in her. There was very little that was interesting in this small Dutch town; it was a refreshing change, he admitted it to himself, to see a gi

lew was in the borderland between the two, and did not consider himself open to the temptations of either. He was not idle, he had

wed through necessity. But also there was no opportunity, on that occasion, fo

t, rather late, and with a sweeping foreign flourish. She wore a pair of cotton gloves, and lifted her dress a few inches, and glanced shyly up at her escort now and then as he talked. They were speaking Dutch, and she was behaving Dutch, as plain and demure a person as it was possible to imagine, until she looked back, then Rawson-Clew saw a very devil of mockery and mischief flash up in he

lk with them. He was not sure that he was not rather sorry for Denah, the Dutch girl; one who can laugh at herself