day, and that is the only free time I have."

"Every other Friday! What a long time, to be sure! Won't you come again
for water this day fortnight?"

"Yes; I come for water three or four times every day. But if they were
to see you, they would kill you first, and then lock me up forever. The
only wise plan is for you to come no more."

"You can not be thinking for a moment what you say. I will tell you
what; if you don't come, I will march up to the house, and beat the door
in. The landlord can do that, according to law."

"If you care at all for me," said Insie, looking as if she had known him
for ten years, "you will do exactly what I tell you. You will think no
more about me for a fortnight; and then if you fancy that I can do you
good by advice about your bad temper, or by teaching you how to plait
reeds for a bat, and how to fill a pitcher--perhaps I might be able to
come down the gill again."

"I wish it was to-morrow. I shall count the days. But be sure to come
early, if they go away all day. I shall bring my dinner with me; and you
shall have the first help, and I will carve. But I should like one thing
before I go; and it is the first time I ever asked anybody, though they
ask me often enough, I can tell you."

"What would you like? You seem to me to be always wanting something."

"I should like very much--very much indeed--just to give you one kiss,
Insie."

"It can not be thought of for a moment," she replied; "and the first
time of my ever seeing you, Sir!"

Before he could reason in favor of a privilege which goes proverbially
by favor, the young maid was gone upon the winding path, with the
pitcher truly balanced on her well-tressed head. Then Pet sat down and
watched her; and she turned round in the distance, and waved him a kiss
at decorous interval.

Not more than three days after this, Mrs. Carnaby came into the
drawing-room with a hasty step, and a web of wrinkles upon her generally
smooth, white forehead.

"Eliza," asked her sister, "what has put you out so? That chair is
not very strong, and you are rather heavy. Do you call that gracefully
sinking on a seat, as we used to learn the way to do at school?"

"No, I do not call it anything of the kind. And if I am heavy, I only
keep my heart in countenance, Philippa. You know not the anxieties of a
mother."

"I am thankful to say that I do not. I have plenty of larger cares to
attend to, as well as the anxieties of an aunt and sister. Bu