en. If you had any argument at all, you would own
that marriage is a question upon which women are the best judges.' 'Oh!'
I would groan in my spirit, and go; leaving my dearest mother quite
sure, that now at last she must have convinced me. But if mother had
known that Jeremy Stickles was working against the black box, and its
issue, I doubt whether he would have fared so well, even though he was
a visitor. However, she knew that something was doing and something of
importance; and she trusted in God for the rest of it. Only she used te
tell me, very seriously, of an evening, 'The very least they can give
you, dear John, is a coat of arms. Be sure you take nothing less, dear;
and the farm can well support it.'

But lo! I have left Lorna ever so long, anxious to consult me upon
political matters. She came to me, and her eyes alone asked a hundred
questions, which I rather had answered upon her lips than troubled her
pretty ears with them. Therefore I told her nothing at all, save that
the attack (if any should be) would not be made on her account; and that
if she should hear, by any chance, a trifle of a noise in the night, she
was to wrap the clothes around her, and shut her beautiful eyes again.
On no account, whatever she did, was she to go to the window. She liked
my expression about her eyes, and promised to do the very best she could
and then she crept so very close, that I needs must have her closer; and
with her head on my breast she asked,--

'Can't you keep out of this fight, John?'

'My own one,' I answered, gazing through the long black lashes, at the
depths of radiant love; 'I believe there will be nothing: but what there
is I must see out.'

'Shall I tell you what I think, John? It is only a fancy of mine, and
perhaps it is not worth telling.'

'Let us have it, dear, by all means. You know so much about their ways.'

'What I believe is this, John. You know how high the rivers are, higher
than ever they were before, and twice as high, you have told me. I
believe that Glen Doone is flooded, and all the houses under water.'

'You little witch,' I answered; 'what a fool I must be not to think
of it! Of course it is: it must be. The torrent from all the Bagworthy
forest, and all the valleys above it, and the great drifts in the glen
itself, never could have outlet down my famous waterslide. The valley
must be under water twenty feet at least. Well, if ever there was a
fool, I am he, for not having though