gh blessed moments of communion. In heart and love they were at
one, but their thoughts carried them on different voyages. When he
spoke again, it was to say in tones of kindly toleration:

"Don't be too hard on the poor Squire. He's a good fellow, and, as you
say, there are all sorts. Presumably she loved that sort. She chose
him, you know."

"Unfortunately she didn't. She chose a waking man, who fell asleep the
moment he'd got her, and has slept on steadily ever since. He was in
love, you see, and love galvanised him into a show of life, and poor,
dear Cassandra saw the miracle, and believed it was going to last.
You're a man, my dear, and you're an author, and you write very clever
books, but you don't realise for a moment how intoxicating it is for a
woman to hold the reins in her own hands, while a lord of creation
kneels trembling at her feet! It's the one little time of her life when
she is master, and it goes to her head. He tells her that she is the
sun, and the moon, and the eleven stars, and that his only object in
life is to adore her for evermore, and that if she won't have him he'll
pine away and die on Wednesday week, and the poor dear thing believes
every word, and is so touched to find herself of such importance after
being just an ordinary, superfluous girl, that she will promise anything
he likes to ask. I am talking, of course," said Grizel markedly, "of
_country_ girls! Girls like Cassandra, shut up in moated granges a
dozen miles from the nearest anywhere. _Not_ of myself! It was _no_
novelty to me to have men squirming!"

"What a very undignified word! Don't dare to apply it to me. I'll
kneel, as much as you like, but I refuse to squirm!" Martin stretched
himself, and rose to his feet. Grizel was better, beginning to talk in
her natural vein, and his conscience began to prick him about his guest.
"Do you think you could manage to get a little deep now! I really
ought to look after poor old Raynor."

Grizel accorded a gracious permission, and submitted meekly to an
irritating process which Martin called "making her comfortable." When
the door was closed behind him, she deftly rearranged all the
accessories which he had misplaced, and composed herself for the
long-deferred rest, but it was not to be. In less than five minutes a
knock sounded at the door, and after a moment's pause was repeated in a
more insistent fashion.

"Come in!" cried Grizel clearly, and Teresa's head p