if you are fond of that sort of thing, Mrs. Temperley,
there are some nasty enough places at the lower end of Craddock----"

"Oh, it isn't that one clings to slums for slums' sake," cried Hadria
laughing.

"I am afraid they are already overrun with visitors," Joseph added.
"There are so many Miss Walkers."

It was not long after this conversation, that Craddock Dene was thrilled
by another piece of matrimonial news. Joseph Fleming was announced to be
engaged to the Irish girl who sang comic songs. She was staying with
Mrs. Jordan at the time. And the Irish girl, whose name was Kathleen
O'Halloran, came and sang her comic songs to Craddock Dene, while Joseph
sat and beamed in pride and happiness, and the audience rippled with
laughter.

Kathleen was very pretty and very fascinating, with her merry,
kind-hearted ways, and she became extremely popular with her future
neighbours.

Little changes had taken place in the village, through death or marriage
or departure. Dodge had laid to rest many victims of influenza, which
visited the neighbourhood with great severity. Among the slain, poor
Dodge had to number his own wife. The old man was broken down with his
loss. He loved to talk over her illness and death with Hadria, whose
presence seemed to comfort him more than anything else, as he assured
her, in his quaint dialect.

Sometimes, returning through the Craddock Woods, Hadria would pass
through the churchyard on her way home, after her walk, and there she
would come upon Dodge patiently at work upon some new grave, the sound
of his pickaxe breaking the autumn silence, ominously. His head was more
bent than of yore, and his hair was whiter. His old face would brighten
up when he heard Hadria's footstep, and he would pause, a moment or two,
for a gossip. The conversation generally turned upon his old "missus,"
who was buried under a yew tree, near the wicket gate. Then he would ask
after Hadria's belongings; about her father and mother, about Hubert,
and the boys. Mr. Fullerton had made the gravedigger's acquaintance, and
won his hearty regard by many a chat and many a little kindness. Dodge
had never ceased to regret that Martha had been taken away from
Craddock. The place seemed as if it had gone to sleep, he said. Things
weren't as they used to be.

Hadria would often go to see the old man, trying to cheer him and
minister to his growing ailments. His shrewdness was remarkable. Mr.
Fullerton quoted Dodge as an