a lean-to to match Opie's summer kitchen, for you
know sometimes a woman finds it comfortable to have a man in the house!"

Maria did not answer at first, but was looking at the one uncurtained
window, where the firelight again made opals of the panes. Then turning,
she said, "I will think over your offer, Mr. Blake, if everything may be
upon a strictly business basis. But how about Amos? He seems better, and
I ought to be going. I do not know why I should have been so foolish,
but for a moment he did not seem to breathe, and I thought it was a
stroke."

"I'm comin' too all in good time, now my mind's relieved," replied the
old man, with a chuckle, "and I think I'll weather to-night fer the sake
o' fixin' that deed termorrow, Mr. Blake, if you'll kindly give me jest
a thimbleful more o' that old liquor o' yourn--I kin manage it fust rate
without the water, thank 'ee!"

_The Man_ followed Maria to the door and out into the night. He did not
ask her if he might go with her--he simply walked by her side for once
unquestioned.

Maria spoke first, and rather more quickly and nervously than usual: "I
suppose you think that my scheme in wishing the farm is a madcap one,
but I'm sure I could not see why you should wish to own it!"

"Yes and no! I can well understand why you should desire a broader,
freer life than your vocation allows, but--well, as for reading women's
motives, I have given that up long since; it often leads to trouble
though I have never lost my interest in them.

"I think Amos Opie will revive, now that his mind is settled" (if it had
been sufficiently light, Maria would have seen an expression upon _The
Man's_ face indicative of his belief that the recent attack of illness
was not quite motiveless, even though he forgave the ruse). "In a few
days, when the deeds are drawn, will you not, as my prospective tenant,
come and look over the house by daylight and tell me what changes would
best suit your purpose, so that I may make some plans? I imagine that
Amos revived will be able to do much of the work himself with a good
assistant.

"When would you like the lease to begin? In May? It is a pity that you
could not be here in the interval to overlook it all, for the pasture
should be ploughed at once for next year's gardening."

"May will be late; best put it at the first of March. As to overseeing,
I shall not be far away. I'm thinking of accepting cousin Mary's offer
to stay with her and teach the Inf