some _very_ strong-looking cheese, and rows
of dried herrings packed in a box.

"It was Hobson's choice, so we bought a herring apiece, and insisted on
having each one wrapped up in paper, and carrying it across the road in
our own separate hands, and _I_ bought a pound of bull's-eyes. They are
such encouraging things on a long walk!

"It was a _delicious_ tea. The milk was rather greasy and hard to mix,
but if you didn't think about it, it tasted almost as good as real, the
eggs were fresh, and the herrings so good that Stanor ran across the
road for more, and we made time with bread and butter until they were
cooked. And we gave not a thought to the motor; it was only when the
sixth plate of bread and butter had been eaten to a crumb that we
remembered the miles between us and the nearest station. Five or six it
was, nothing to trouble ordinary people, even if they would have
preferred a comfortable car, but there was Honor! She had slipped off
her shoe under the table, and when she tried to put it on again it hurt
so badly that she could hardly hobble across the room, and there was not
a vehicle within miles.

"We all fussed and wondered what could be done, except Mr Carr, who
strolled calmly out of the house without a word, lighting a cigarette as
he went, and after that Honor's foot got so suddenly worse that the
tears came to her eyes. Five minutes later when we were still fussing
and settling nothing, back he came, and in his hands, what do you
think?--you'd never guess--a pair of men's carpet slippers! I remember
in a dim, sub-conscious fashion having seen them hanging up in drab and
crimson bunches from the ceiling of the shop, but it had never occurred
to me that they were to _wear_!"

"`You can walk in these!' said Mr Carr coolly, and without waiting to
hear Honor's reply, he went down on his knees, and began unbuttoning her
shoe. She has the daintiest mite of a foot you ever saw--it looked like
a doll's in his big, strong hand--but she wasn't a bit grateful. There
was a look on her face which sent all the others crowding to the door,
but she glared at me to stay, and, being curious, I obeyed.

"`Mr Carr,' says she,--`this is too much! It is usual in my country
for a man to ask a girl what she wants, before he takes it upon himself
to dictate!'

"He went on unfastening the shoe.

"Occasionally one meets people who don't know what they _do_ want!

"`Well, I reckon I _do_. And it don't happ