Thursday. The—-the happy couple"—-(and
Mr. Benthall gave a cynical grin as he said
the words)—" the happy couple are away
now on their wedding trip."

"Well, I niver did! I niver did! The
old squire to come and marry Miss Marian!
He that was allays so mumchance and so
meek, and had a sweet tooth in's head
after all! I thowt it was to talk wi' the
poor old master about book-larnin' and
such stuff that he corned here! I'd niver
an idee that he'd an eye for the young
gell."

"Only shows how sly these old gentlemen
can be when they choose, Mrs. Covey,"
said Mr. Benthall, much amused, "if they
can deceive such sharp eyes as yours."

"Dear heart, I've no cause to call mine
sharp eyes any longer, I think," said the
old woman, shaking her head, "for I was
took in by both on 'em. I niver thowt
Miss Marian would throw t'other one over,
that I niver did.

"What's that you're saying, Mrs. Covey?"
asked Mr. Benthall, sharply.

"I was sayin' that I allays thowt Miss
Marian would howld by the t'other one,
and—— "

"Other one? What other one? I
never heard of there being any 'other one,'
as you call it, in regard to Miss Ashurst."

"No! You didn't, I dare say! Nor
didn't not no one else!" said the old lady,
with a frightful redundancy of negatives;
"but I did."

"And who was this 'other one,' if one
may ask, Mrs. Covey?"

"One may ask, and there's only one can
answer, and that one's me. Ah, well,
there's no harm in tellin', now that she's
married and all that, though I niver
opened my mouth about it before to livin'
soul, hopin' it would come all right like.
Miss Marian were keepin' company wi'
young Joyce!"

"Joyce! Joyce!" repeated Mr. Benthall.
"What, young Mr. Joyce, who was one of
Mr. Ashurst' s masters here?"

"That very same! ay, and he were Miss
Ashurst' s master, he were, at the time I'm
speakin' of! " said the old woman.

"Too much kitchen fire has brought on
softening of this old person's brain!" said
Mr. Benthall to himself. "There can't be
a shadow of foundation for what she says,
or I should surely have heard of it in the
village!" Then, aloud, "What makes you
think this, Mrs. Covey?"

"What meks me think it? Why, my
own eyesight meks me think it, and that's
the best think I can have i' the matter,"
replied the old woman, waxing rather cross
at her master's evident incredulity. "Nobody
niver spoke of it, becos' nobody knowed
it, but I've sat at the kitchen window o'
summer nights and seen 'em walkin' roun'
the garden for hours thegither, hand-in-
hand, or him wi' his arms round her waist,
and I know what that means, tho' I may be
an old fool!"

"No, no, Mrs. Covey, no one ever thought
that for a minute," said Mr. Benthall,
anxious to soothe the old woman's offended
dignity, and really very much interested in
the news she had given him. "No doubt
you're quite correct, only, as I had never
heard a hint of this before, I was rather
startled at the suddenness of the
announcement. Tell me now, had Mr. Ashurst any
notion of what was going on?"

"Wasn't the schoolmaster, poor feckless
critter, allays buzzed in th' heed wi' book-
larnin' and troubles o' all sorts? No bittle
as iver flew war blinder, nor deafer, than my
poor owd master in matters what didn't
concern him!"

"Nor Mrs. Ashurst?"

"Ah, the poor sickly thing, wi' pains
here and aches there, and so dillicate, and
niver 'nuff strength to look after what she
ought, let alone anything else! No! they
kept it to themselves, the young pipple,
and nobody knowed nowt about it but me,
and they didn't know as I knew, for the
kitchen window, as you know, is hid wi'
fuzz and creepers, and you can see out
wi'out bein' seen! Lor, lor, and so she's
gone and married that owd man! And
t'other one's gone for sojer, they say, and
all that story, as I used to sit i' the kitchen
and make up in my head, will never be!
Lor, lor, what a world it is!"

Mr. Benthall was very much surprised
at the information which had come to him
in that odd way. He had never thought
much about Marian Ashurst, but he knew
perfectly well that popular opinion in
Helmingham and the neighbourhood held to
the fact that she had never had any love-
affair. He was disposed to regard her with
rather more favour than before, for if what
Mrs. Covey stated of her were true, it
showed that at one time she must have
possessed a heart, though she had allowed
herself to ignore its promptings under the
overweening influence of avarice. Mr.
Benthall thought a good deal over this story.
He wondered when, how, and under what
circumstances Miss Ashurst had broken her