nd
he, like a low comedian, seemed to relish its vulgarity. As he spoke he
came in among them for shelter, and propped his spade against the wall
of the chalet, kicking the soil from his hobnailed blucher boots, which
were new.

"I came out, honored lady," he resumed, much at his ease, "to house my
spade, whereby I earn my living. What the pen is to the poet, such is
the spade to the working man." He took the kerchief from his neck, wiped
his temples as if the sweat of honest toil were there, and calmly tied
it on again.

"If you'll 'scuse a remark from a common man," he observed, "your
ladyship has a fine family of daughters."

"They are not my daughters," said Miss Wilson, rather shortly.

"Sisters, mebbe?"

"No."

"I thought they mout be, acause I have a sister myself. Not that I would
make bold for to dror comparisons, even in my own mind, for she's only a
common woman--as common a one as ever you see. But few women rise above
the common. Last Sunday, in yon village church, I heard the minister
read out that one man in a thousand had he found, 'but one woman in all
these,' he says, 'have I not found,' and I thinks to myself, 'Right you
are!' But I warrant he never met your ladyship."

A laugh, thinly disguised as a cough, escaped from Miss Carpenter.

"Young lady a-ketchin' cold, I'm afeerd," he said, with respectful
solicitude.

"Do you think the rain will last long?" said Agatha politely.

The man examined the sky with a weather-wise air for some moments. Then
he turned to Agatha, and replied humbly: "The Lord only knows, Miss. It
is not for a common man like me to say."

Silence ensued, during which Agatha, furtively scrutinizing the tenant
of the chalet, noticed that his face and neck were cleaner and less
sunburnt than those of the ordinary toilers of Lyvern. His hands
were hidden by large gardening gloves stained with coal dust. Lyvern
laborers, as a rule, had little objection to soil their hands; they
never wore gloves. Still, she thought, there was no reason why an
eccentric workman, insufferably talkative, and capable of an allusion to
the pen of the poet, should not indulge himself with cheap gloves. But
then the silk, silvermounted umbrella--

"The young lady's hi," he said suddenly, holding out the umbrella, "is
fixed on this here. I am well aware that it is not for the lowest of the
low to carry a gentleman's brolly, and I ask your ladyship's pardon
for the liberty. I come by it accident