pose we stroll over that way."

"I am ready to stroll," said Mrs. Petter, in a tone that showed she had
been a good deal stirred by her companion's remarks, "but I am not going
to stroll over that way. The place is big enough for people to keep to
themselves, if they choose, and I am one that chooses, and I choose to
walk in the direction of my duty, or, more properly, the duty of
somebody else, and see that the hen-houses are shut"; and, taking
Lanigan's arm, she marched him down to the barn, and then across a small
orchard to the most distant poultry-house within the limits of the
estate.

When Mr. Stephen Petter, allowing his eyes to drop from the pointed roof
of his high tower, saw his wife and Lanigan Beam walking away among the
trees in the orchard, he suddenly became aware that the night air was
chilly, and suggested to his companion that it might be well to return
to the house.

"Oh, not yet, Mr. Petter," said she; "I want you to tell me how you came
to have that little turret over the thatched roof."

She had determined that she would not go indoors while Calthea Rose and
Mr. Lodloe sat together on that bench.

Early in the evening Miss Calthea had seen Mr. Lodloe walking by himself
upon the bluff, and she so arranged a little promenade of her own that
in passing around some shrubbery she met him near the bench. Miss
Calthea was an admirable manager in dialogue, and if she had an object
in view it did not take her long to find out what her collocutor liked
to talk about. She had unusual success in discovering something which
very much interested Mr. Lodloe, and they were soon seated on a bench
discussing the manners and ways of life in Lethbury.

To a man who recently had been seized with a desire to marry and to live
in Lethbury, and who had already taken some steps in regard to the
marriage, this subject was one of the most lively interest, and Lodloe
was delighted to find what a sensible, practical, and well-informed
woman was Miss Rose. She was able to give him all sorts of points about
buying a building or renting houses in Lethbury, and she entered with
the greatest zeal into the details of living, service, the cost of
keeping a horse, a cow, and poultry, and without making any inconvenient
inquiries into the reasons for Mr. Lodloe's desire for information on
these subjects. She told him everything he wanted to know about
housekeeping in her native village, because she had made herself aware
that h