e great, broad, horny palm, 'or
at least till you take your gun.'

'So you are not grown wiser?'

'Nor ever will be.'

'Every woman ought to learn to saddle a horse and fire off a gun.'

'Yes, against the civil war squires are always expecting. You shall
teach me when the time comes.'

'You'll never see that time, nor any other, if you go out in those thin
boots. I'll fetch Sarah's clogs; I suppose you have not a reasonable
pair in the world.'

'My boots are quite thick, thank you.'

'Brown paper!' And indeed they were a contrast to his mighty nailed
soles, and long, untanned buskins, nor did they greatly resemble the
heavy, country-made galoshes which, with an elder brother's authority, he
forced her to put on, observing that nothing so completely evinced the
Londoner as her obstinacy in never having a pair of shoes that could keep
anything out.

'And where are you going?'

'To Hayward's farm. Is that too far for you? He wants an abatement of
his rent for some improvements, and I want to judge what they may be
worth.'

'Hayward's--oh, not a bit too far!' and holding up her skirts, she picked
her way as daintily as her weighty _chaussure_ would permit, along the
narrow green footway that crossed the expanse of dewy turf in which the
dogs careered, getting their noses covered with flakes of thick gossamer,
cemented together by dew. Fly scraped it off with a delicate forepaw,
Vixen rolled over, and doubly entangled it in her rugged coat. Humfrey
Charlecote strode on before his companion with his hands in his pockets,
and beginning to whistle, but pausing to observe, over his shoulder, 'A
sweet day for getting up the roots! You're not getting wet, I hope?'

'I couldn't through this rhinoceros hide, thank you. How exquisitely the
mist is curling up, and showing the church-spire in the valley.'

'And I suppose you have been reading all manner of books?'

'I think the best was a great history of France.'

'France!' he repeated in a contemptuous John Bull tone.

'Ay, don't be disdainful; France was the centre of chivalry in the old
time.'

'Better have been the centre of honesty.'

'And so it was in the time of St. Louis and his crusade. Do you know it,
Humfrey?'

'Eh?'

That was full permission. Ever since Honora had been able to combine a
narration, Humfrey had been the recipient, though she seldom knew whether
he attended, and from her babyhood upwards had been quite contented with
trott