resent, and future!' she murmured. 'It never occurred to me that
you had a tragedy, too.'

'But I have!' he said, shaking his head. 'In fact, four.'

'Then tell 'em!' cried the young woman.

'I will--I will. But be considerate, I beg 'ee, mee deer. Well--I
wasn't a bachelor when I married 'ee, any more than you were a spinster.
Just as you was a widow-woman, I was a widow-man.

'Ah!' said she, with some surprise. 'But is that all?--then we are
nicely balanced,' she added, relieved.

'No--it is not all. There's the point. I am not only a widower.'

'O, David!'

'I am a widower with four tragedies--that is to say, four strapping
girls--the eldest taller than you. Don't 'ee look so struck--dumb-like!
It fell out in this way. I knew the poor woman, their mother, in Pen-
zephyr for some years; and--to cut a long story short--I privately
married her at last, just before she died. I kept the matter secret, but
it is getting known among the people here by degrees. I've long felt for
the children--that it is my duty to have them here, and do something for
them. I have not had courage to break it to 'ee, but I've seen lately
that it would soon come to your ears, and that hev worried me.'

'Are they educated?' said the ex-schoolmistress.

'No. I am sorry to say they have been much neglected; in truth, they can
hardly read. And so I thought that by marrying a young schoolmistress I
should get some one in the house who could teach 'em, and bring 'em into
genteel condition, all for nothing. You see, they are growed up too tall
to be sent to school.'

'O, mercy!' she almost moaned. 'Four great girls to teach the rudiments
to, and have always in the house with me spelling over their books; and I
hate teaching, it kills me. I am bitterly punished--I am, I am!'

'You'll get used to 'em, mee deer, and the balance of secrets--mine
against yours--will comfort your heart with a sense of justice. I could
send for 'em this week very well--and I will! In faith, I could send
this very day. Baptista, you have relieved me of all my difficulty!'

Thus the interview ended, so far as this matter was concerned. Baptista
was too stupefied to say more, and when she went away to her room she
wept from very mortification at Mr. Heddegan's duplicity. Education, the
one thing she abhorred; the shame of it to delude a young wife so!

The next meal came round. As they sat, Baptista would not suffer her
eyes to turn towards