uch a
place. Jack talked with his father of chemistry, of his school
teachers, of what he would be when he was a man. Their conversation was
interrupted by Nelly's exclaiming:

'See, there's Miss Nancarrow!'

Totty was coming over the grass at a little distance, between two
companions, girls dressed with an emphasis of Sunday elegance which
made her look rather brown and plain by contrast. Totty never cared to
spend much on clothes, a singular feature of her character. When the
three were passing at a distance of twenty yards, Nelly cried out with
shrill voice:

'Miss Nancarrow!'

'Hush, child!' said her father, more annoyed than seemed necessary.
'Don't scream at people in that way.'

Nelly was abashed, but her cry had caught Totty's ear. The latter
nodded, laughed, and went on with her friends.

'I say, father,' Jack began, 'do you know what I think?'

'What, boy?'

'Why, I think if you asked Miss Nancarrow to come and take a room in
the new house, she would.'

'Why on earth should I ask her to do such a thing?' inquired Bunce,
laying down his pipe on the grass; it had gone out since Totty's
passing. He looked at his son with bent brows, and rather fiercely.

'Well, I know I'd like her to, and so would Nelly. I can get on with
Miss Nancarrow, 'cause she's got so much sense. I don't think much of
other women.'

Bunce grubbed up roots of grass with his hard, blunt fingers. Then he
took up his pipe again and turned the stem about between his teeth. And
the while he cast glances at Jack, side glances, half savage.

'What makes you think she'd come?' he inquired at length, with a
blundering attempt at indifference of tone.

'I talked to her about it the other night.'

'Oh, you did, did you? And what business had you to talk about such
things, I'd like to know?'

'I don't see no harm. I told her we'd all be glad if she'd come.'

'What the confusion! And who told you to say any such thing?'

Jack was amazed at the outburst of wrath he had provoked.

'Well, father,' he muttered, 'I've heard you say yourself that you'd be
glad if she was coming.'

'Then I'll thank you not to repeat what I say. Leave Miss Nancarrow
alone. If I find you've talked to her in that way again, you and me 'll
quarrel, Jack.'

The boy fell into a fit of sulks, and drew to a little distance, where
he lay fiat, beating the earth vigorously with a stick.

Then it strangely happened that someone came round the bushes, in the
sh