he,' the clerk chimed in, shaking his head ominously.

'She has such a temper,' said the farmer, 'and is so wilful too. You may
as well try to stop a footpath as stop her when she has taken anything
into her head. I'd as soon grind little green crabs all day as live wi'
her.'

''Tis a temper she hev, 'tis,' the clerk replied, 'though I be a servant
of the Church that say it. But she isn't goen to flee in a passion this
time.'

The audience waited for the continuation of the speech, as if they knew
from experience the exact distance off it lay in the future.

The clerk swallowed nothing as if it were a great deal, and then went
on, 'There's some'at between 'em: mark my words, naibours--there's
some'at between 'em.'

'D'ye mean it?'

'I d' know it. He came last Saturday, didn't he?'

''A did, truly,' said Gad Weedy, at the same time taking an apple from
the hopper of the mill, eating a piece, and flinging back the remainder
to be ground up for cider.

'He went to church a-Sunday,' said the clerk again.

''A did.'

'And she kept her eye upon en all the service, her face flickeren
between red and white, but never stoppen at either.'

Mr. Springrove nodded, and went to the press.

'Well,' said the clerk, 'you don't call her the kind o' woman to make
mistakes in just trotten through the weekly service o' God? Why, as a
rule she's as right as I be myself.'

Mr. Springrove nodded again, and gave a twist to the screw of the press,
followed in the movement by Gad at the other side; the two grinders
expressing by looks of the greatest concern that, if Miss Aldclyffe were
as right at church as the clerk, she must be right indeed.

'Yes, as right in the service o' God as I be myself,' repeated the
clerk. 'But last Sunday, when we were in the tenth commandment, says
she, "Incline our hearts to keep this law," says she, when 'twas "Laws
in our hearts, we beseech Thee," all the church through. Her eye was
upon _him_--she was quite lost--"Hearts to keep this law," says she; she
was no more than a mere shadder at that tenth time--a mere shadder. You
mi't ha' mouthed across to her "Laws in our hearts we beseech Thee,"
fifty times over--she'd never ha' noticed ye. She's in love wi' the man,
that's what she is.'

'Then she's a bigger stunpoll than I took her for,' said Mr. Springrove.
'Why, she's old enough to be his mother.'

'The row'll be between her and that young Curlywig, you'll see. She
won't run the risk of that