no fire in the parlour, and the room looked a
little cheerless in spite of the well-spread table. They had discontinued
fires for about a fortnight, at Mr. Whitelaw's command. He didn't want to
be ruined by his coal-merchant's bill if it was a chilly spring, he told
his household; and at his own bidding the fire-place had been polished
and garnished for the summer. But this evening was colder than any
evening lately, by reason of that blusterous rising wind, which blew the
rain-drops against the window-panes with as sharp a rattle as if they had
been hailstones; and Mr. Whitelaw coming in presently, disconsolate and
dripping, was by no means inclined to abide by his own decision about the
fires.

"Why the ---- haven't you got a fire here?" he demanded savagely.

"It was your own wish, Stephen," answered Mrs. Tadman.

"My own fiddlesticks! Of course I didn't care to see my wood and coals
burning to waste when the sun was shining enough to melt any one. But
when a man comes home wet to the skin, he doesn't want to come into a
room like an ice-house. Call the girl, and tell her to light a blazing
fire while I go and change my clothes. Let her bring plenty of wood, and
put a couple of logs on top of the coals. I'm frozen to the very bones
driving home in the rain."

Mrs. Tadman gave a plaintive sigh as she departed to obey her kinsman.

"That's just like Stephen," she said; "if it was you or me that wanted a
fire, we might die of cold before we got leave to light one; but he never
grudges anything for his own comfort!"

Martha came and lighted a fire under Mrs. Tadman's direction. That lady
was inclined to look somewhat uneasily upon the operation; for the grate
had been used constantly throughout a long winter, and the chimney had
not been swept since last spring, whereby Mrs. Tadman was conscious of a
great accumulation of soot about the massive old brickwork and ponderous
beams that spanned the wide chimney. She had sent for the Malsham sweep
some weeks ago; but that necessary individual had not been able to come
on the particular day she wished, and the matter had been since then
neglected. She remembered this now with a guilty feeling, more especially
as Stephen had demanded a blazing fire, with flaring pine-logs piled
half-way up the chimney. He came back to the parlour presently, arrayed
in an old suit of clothes which he kept for such occasions--an old green
coat with basket buttons, and a pair of plaid trouser