r if
things are running on an even keel."

"I shall attempt no method so coarse," Langton assured him. "I don't
want to be ordered out of the house--must I repeat that I adore her?
It may be news to you that she repays my attachment with a certain
respect. . . . Should she find herself in any difficulty--and she
will not--I shall be sent for and consulted. In any event, fond man,
you may count on my calling."

As they shook hands Sir Oliver asked, "Don't you envy me, Batty?"

"Constantly and in everything," answered Langton; "though--ass that I
am--I have rather prided myself on concealing it."

"I mean, don't you wish that you, and not I, were sailing for
England? For that matter, though, there's nothing prevents you."

"Oh yes--there is."

"What, then?"

"Use and wont, if you will; indolence, if you choose; affection for
you, Noll, if you prefer it."

"That had been an excellent reason for coming with me."

"It may be a better one for staying. . . . Well, as you walk up St.
James's, give it my regards."

"For so fine an intelligence Noll can be infernally crass at times,"
muttered Mr. Langton to himself as he walked back to his lodgings.

He kept his promise and rode over to Eagles ten days later, to pay
Ruth a visit. He found her astonishingly cheerful. The sum left by
Sir Oliver for her stewardship had scared her at first. It scared
her worse to discover how the heap began to drain away as through a
sieve. But slowly she saw her way to stop some of the holes in that
sieve. He had calculated her expenses, taking for basis the accounts
of the past few months; and in the matter of entertaining, for
example, she would save vast sums. . . . She foresaw herself a miser
almost, to earn his praise.

"_--Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband shall safely trust in her, so that he shall
have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the
days of his life_."

"_She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
She is like the merchants's ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her
household. . . . She considereth a field and buyeth it. . . .
She looketh well into the ways of her household_."

"_Her children rise up, and call her blessed. . . ._" Her children?
But she had let him go, after all, without telling her secret.

Mr. Langton sat and balanced a mal