rely wondered what I had better say in case he spoke to me before
you saw Ellen--that's all. Sarah! I couldn't have believed that anything
could please me so much. But it does seem as if it were the assurance
of Ellen's happiness; and she has deserved it, poor child! If ever
there was a dutiful and loving daughter--at least before that wretched
affair--she was one."

"She has been a good girl," Mrs. Kenton stoically admitted.

"And they are very well matched. Ellen is a cultivated woman. He never
could have cause to blush for her, either her mind or her manners,
in any circle of society; she would do him credit under any and all
circumstances. If it were Lottie--"

"Lottie is all right," said her mother, in resentment of his preference;
but she could not help smiling at it. "Don't you be foolish about Ellen.
I approve of Mr. Breckon as much as you do. But it's her prettiness and
sweetness that's taken his fancy, and not her wisdom, if she's got him."

"If she's got him?"

"Well, you know what I mean. I'm not saying she hasn't. Dear knows, I
don't want to! I feel just as you do about it. I think it's the greatest
piece of good fortune, coming on top of all our trouble with her. I
couldn't have imagined such a thing."

He was instantly appeased. "Are you going to speak with Ellen" he
radiantly inquired.

"I will see. There's no especial hurry, is there?"

"Only, if he should happen to meet me--"

"You can keep out of his way, I reckon. Or You can put him off,
somehow."

"Yes," Kenton returned, doubtfully. "Don't," he added, "be too blunt
with Ellen. You know she didn't say anything explicit to me."

"I think I will know how to manage, Mr. Kenton."

"Yes, of course, Sarah. I'm not saying that."

Breckon did not apparently try to find the judge before lunch, and
at table he did not seem especially devoted to Ellen in her father's
jealous eyes. He joked Lottie, and exchanged those passages or repartee
with her in which she did not mind using a bludgeon when she had not
a rapier at hand; it is doubtful if she was very sensible of the
difference. Ellen sat by in passive content, smiling now and then, and
Boyne carried on a dignified conversation with Mr. Pogis, whom he
had asked to lunch at his table, and who listened with one ear to the
vigorous retorts of Lottie in her combat with Breckon.

The judge witnessed it all with a grave displeasure, more and more
painfully apparent to his wife. She could see the im