asked, 'Married abroad, was they? And how long will a wedding abroad
stand good for in this country?'

'As long as a wedding at home.'

'Will it? Faith; I didn't know: how should I? I thought it might be some
new plan o' folks for leasing women now they be so plentiful, so as to
get rid o' 'em when the men be tired o' 'em, and hev spent all their
money.'

'He won't be able to spend her money,' said the landlord of
Sleeping-Green. ''Tis her very own person's--settled upon the hairs of
her head for ever.'

'O nation! Then if I were the man I shouldn't care for such a one-eyed
benefit as that,' said Dairyman Jinks, turning away to listen to the
talk on his other hand.

'Is that true?' asked the gentleman-farmer in broadcloth.

'It is sufficiently near the truth,' said Havill. 'There is nothing at
all unusual in the arrangement; it was only settled so to prevent any
schemer making a beggar of her. If Somerset and she have any children,
which probably they will, it will be theirs; and what can a man want
more? Besides, there is a large portion of property left to her personal
use--quite as much as they can want. Oddly enough, the curiosities
and pictures of the castle which belonged to the De Stancys are not
restricted from sale; they are hers to do what she likes with. Old Power
didn't care for articles that reminded him so much of his predecessors.'

'Hey?' said Dairyman Jinks, turning back again, having decided that the
conversation on his right hand was, after all, the more interesting.
'Well--why can't 'em hire a travelling chap to touch up the picters into
her own gaffers and gammers? Then they'd be worth sommat to her.'

'Ah, here they are? I thought so,' said Havill, who had been standing up
at the window for the last few moments. 'The ringers were told to begin
as soon as the train signalled.'

As he spoke a carriage drew up to the hotel-door, followed by another
with the maid and luggage. The inmates crowded to the bow-window, except
Dairyman Jinks, who had become absorbed in his own reflections.

'What be they stopping here for?' asked one of the previous speakers.

'They are going to stay here to-night,' said Havill. 'They have come
quite unexpectedly, and the castle is in such a state of turmoil that
there is not a single carpet down, or room for them to use. We shall get
two or three in order by next week.'

'Two little people like them will be lost in the chammers of that
wandering place!' satiri