ed at last. Then she climbed
into the trap and seated herself beside her husband.

"Good-bye, friends," she shouted, as they drove off. "Don't ye worry.
He can drive t' owd mare, but 'e can't drive me. I'll bring 'im to 'is
sops!"

"Gosh!" snapped Sar'-Ann's mother, "now that's some bit like! Gi' me a
woman for mettle an' sperrit I Lord 'elp us, but I reckon nowt o' such
a white-livered lot o' men as we hev i' Windyridge. She'll mak' a man
o' yon old rascal yet, will Maria!"

As I looked back on my way home I saw that Ted had fetched his rake,
and was busy getting the garden into order again.

CHAPTER XX

THE CYNIC'S RENUNCIATION

Excitements tread upon each other's heels. After Barjona, the Cynic.
He appeared unexpectedly on Monday morning, and I took the
long-promised photographs, which have turned out very badly; why, I
don't know. He was not in his Sunday best, so the fault did not lie
there; and his expression was all right, but I could not catch it on
the plate, try as I might. He was very much amused, and accused me of
looking haggard over the business, which was absurd. Every
photographer is anxious to secure a satisfactory result, or if he is
not he does not deserve to succeed. I think really I was afraid of his
waxing sarcastic over my attempts at portraying his features. He is
not a handsome man, as I may have remarked before, but he is not the
sort that passes unnoticed, and I wanted to secure on the plate the
something that makes people look twice at him; and I failed. I took
several negatives, but none of them was half as nice as the original;
and yet we are told that photography flatters!

He professed an indifference which I am afraid he felt, and Mother
Hubbard assured him over the dinner-table that there was not the
slightest ground for anxiety. It will be a long time, I fear, before
he gets the proofs. He stayed to dinner on his own invitation, and
Mother Hubbard prepared one of her extra special Yorkshire puddings in
his honour. Fortunately, we had not cooked the beef on the Sunday, or
he would have had to be content with the remains of the cold joint; and
though I should not have minded, I know Mother Hubbard would have been
greatly distressed.

He spoke quite naturally about Rose, and appeared to have enjoyed her
company immensely, but he had not seen her again up to then.

When the meal was over we went out into the garden and sat down, and
somehow or other the sen