all, in her quiet manner, quite as much as I
did her; but she spoke very little; occupied
herself, indeed, as my lady had planned, with
looking over the great books of engravings.
I think I must have (foolishly) intended to
make her feel at her ease, by my patronage;
but she was seated far away from my sofa,
in order to command the light, and really
seemed so unconcerned at her unwonted
circumstances, that she did not need my
countenance or kindness. One thing I did like;
her watchful look at Miss Galindo from time
to time; it showed that her thoughts and
sympathy were ever at Miss Galindo's service,
as indeed they well might be. When
Miss Bessy spoke, her voice was full and
clear, and what she said to the purpose,
though there was a slight provincial accent
in her way of speaking. After a while, my
lady set us two to play at chess, a game
which I had lately learnt at Mr. Gray's
suggestion. Still we did not talk much together,
though we were becoming attracted towards
each other, I fancy.

"You will play well," said she. "You
have only learnt about six months, have you?
And yet you can nearly beat me, who have
been at it as many years."

"I began to learn last November. I remember
Mr. Gray's bringing me Philidor on
Chess, one very foggy, dismal day."

What made her look up so suddenly, with
bright inquiry in her eyes? What made her
silent for a moment, as if in thought, and
then go on with something, I know not what,
in quite an altered tone?

My lady and Miss Galindo went on talking,
while I sat thinking. I heard Captain
James's name mentioned pretty frequently;
and at last my lady put down her work, and
said, almost with tears in her eyes:

"I could not—I cannot believe it. He
must be aware she is a schismatic; a baker's
daughter; and he is a gentleman by virtue,
and feeling, as well as by his profession,
though his manners may be at times a little
rough. My dear Miss Galindo, what will this
world come to?"

Miss Galindo might possibly be aware of
her own share in bringing the world to the
pass which now dismayed my lady,—for, of
course, though all was now over and forgiven,
yet Miss Bessy's being received into a
respectable maiden lady's house, was one of
the portents as to the world's future which
alarmed her ladyship; and Miss Galindo
knew this, but, at any rate, she had too
lately been forgiven herself not to plead for
mercy for the next offender against my lady's
delicate sense of fitness and propriety,—so
she replied:

"Indeed, my lady, I have long left oft trying
to conjecture what makes Jack fancy
Gill, or Gill Jack. It's best to sit down
quiet under the belief that marriages are
made for us, somewhere out of this world,
and out of the range of this world's
reasons and laws. I'm not so sure that
I should settle it down that they were
made in Heaven; t'other place seems to me
as likely a workshop; but, at any rate, I've
given up troubling my head as to why they
take place. Captain James is a gentleman;
I make no doubt of that ever since I saw
him stop to pick up old Goody Blake (when
she tumbled down on the slide last winter)
and then swear at a little lad who was
laughing at her, and cuff him till he tumbled
down crying; but we must have bread
somehow, and though I like it better baked
at home in a good sweet brick oven, yet, as
some folks never can get it to rise, I don't
see why a man may not be a baker. You
see, my lady, I look upon baking as a
simple trade, and as such lawful. There is
no machine comes in to take away a man's
or woman's power of earning their living, like
the spinning-jenny (the old busybody that
she is), to knock up all our good old women's
livelihood, and send them to their graves
before their time. There's an invention of
the enemy, if you will!"

"That's very true!" said my lady, shaking
her head.

"But baking bread is wholesome, straight-
forward elbow-work. They have not got to
inventing any contrivance for that yet,
thank Heaven. It does not seem to me
natural, nor according to Scripture, that iron
and steel (whose brows can't sweat) should
be made to do man's work. And so I say all
those trades where iron and steel do the
work ordained to man at the Fall, are unlawful,
and I never stand up for them. But say
this baker Brooke did knead his bread, and
make it rise, and then that people, who had,
perhaps, no good ovens, came to him, and
bought his good light bread, and in this
manner he turned an honest penny, and got
rich; why, all I say, my lady, is this,—I dare
say he would have been born a Hanbury, or
a lord, if he could; and if he was not, it is
no fault of his, that I can see, that he made
good bread (being a baker by trade), and got
money, and bought his land. It was his
misfortune , not his fault, that he was not a
person of quality by birth."

"That's very true," said my lady, after a
moment's pause for consideration. "But,
although he was a baker, he might have been
a Churchman. Even your eloquence, Miss
Galindo, shan't convince me that that is not
his own fault."

"I don't see even that, begging your pardon,
my lady," said Miss Galindo, emboldened by
the first success of her eloquence. "When a
Baptist is a baby, if I understand their creed
aright, he is not baptised; and, consequently,
he can have no godfathers and godmothers
to do anything for him in his baptism; you
agree to that, my lady?"

My lady would rather have known what
her acquiescence would lead to, before
acknowledging that she could not dissent