hen she crows and the cock do but cluck."

Town-bred Ryder laughed at the rustic maid's simile; and, not to be
outdone in metaphor, told her there were dogs that barked, and dogs that
bit. "Our master is one of those that bite. I've done the priest's
business. He is as like to get the sack as you are."

* * * * *

Griffith found his wife seated on the lawn reading. He gulped down his
ire as well as he could; but nevertheless his voice trembled a little
with suppressed passion.

"So Jane is turned off now," said he.

"I don't know about being turned off," replied Mrs. Gaunt, calmly; "but
she leaves me next month, and Cicely Davis comes back."

"And Cicely Davis is a useless slut that cannot boil a potato fit to
eat; but then she is a Papist, and poor Jenny is a Protestant, and can
cook a dinner."

"My dear," said Mrs. Gaunt, "do not you trouble about the servants;
leave them to me."

"And welcome; but this is not your doing, it is that Leonard's: and I
cannot allow a Popish priest to turn off all my servants that are worth
their salt. Come, Kate, you used to be a sensible woman, and a tender
wife; now I ask you, is a young bachelor a fit person to govern a man's
family?"

Mrs. Gaunt laughed in his face. "A young bachelor!" said she; "who ever
heard of such a term applied to a priest,--and a saint upon earth?"

"Why, he is not married, so he must be a bachelor; and I say again it is
monstrous for a young bachelor to come between old married folk, and
hear all their secrets, and have a finger in every pie, and set up to be
master of my house, and order my wife to turn away my servants for going
to church behind me. Why not turn _me_ away too? Their fault is mine."

"Griffith, you are in a passion, and I begin to think you want to put me
in one."

"Well, perhaps I am. Job's patience went at last, and mine has been sore
tried this many a month. 'T was bad enough when the man was only your
confessor; you told him everything, and you don't tell me everything. He
knew your very heart, better than I do, and that was a bitter thing for
me to bear, that love you and have no secrets from you. But every man
who marries a Catholic must endure this; so I put a good face on it,
though my heart was often sore; 't was the price I had to pay for my
pearl of womankind. But since he set up your governor as well, you are a
changed woman; you shun company abroad, you freeze my friends at home.
Yo