Gov'nor," he said with somewhat thickened speech, "I come here an' I
asked for a meal. An' she tol' me would I work fer it? An' I said yes.
An' she come into this ol' vault of a suller, an' she pointed to that
ol' heap o' wood, an' she tol' me ter move it over ter that corner.
An' I done so fer half an hour. An' I says to that blitherin' fool over
there, who was workin' in that ol' wood-house, what the devil did she
care w'ich corner the darned stuff was in? An' he says that she didn't
care a hang, but that she'd tell the next man that come along to move
it back to where I got it from; he said 'twas a matter er principle
with her not to give a man a bite fer nothin'! So I shut him in his ol'
house, an' w'en she come down I gave her a piece of my mind. I don't
mind a little work, mister, but when it come to shufflin' kind-lin's
round in this ol' tomb fer half an hour an' makin' a fool o' myself fer
nothin', I got my back up. My time ain't so vallyble to me as 'tis to
some, gov'nor, but it's worth a damn sight more'n that!"

Miss Gould's lodger shuddered as he remembered the quarter he had
surreptitiously bestowed upon the man, and the withering scorn that
would be his portion were the weakness known. He smiled as he recalled
the scene in the cellar when he had helped Miss Gould up the stairs and
returned to soothe Henry, who regretted that he had left one timber of
the woodhouse upon another.

"Though I'm bound to say, Mr. Welles, that I see how he felt. I've often
felt like a fool explainin' how they was to move that wood back an'
forth. It does seem strange that Miss Gould has to do it that way. Give
'em some-thin' an' let 'em go, I say!"

It was precisely his own view--but how fundamentally immoral the
position was he knew so well! He recalled Miss Gould's lectures on the
subject, miracles of eloquence and irrefutably correct in deductions
that interested him not nearly so much as the lecturer.

"So firm, so positive, so wholesome!" he would murmur to himself in
tacit apology for the instructive hours spent before their common
ground, the great fireplace in the central hall. He never sat there
without remembering their first interview: her resentment at an
absolutely inexcusable intrusion slowly melting before his exquisite
appreciation of every line and corner of the old colonial homestead; her
reserve waning at every touch of his irresistible courtesy, till, to her
own open amazement, she rose to conduct this con