ela? You, you yourself?"

"You mean to ask whether, if, as regards other circumstances, I was
minded to marry, I would then be deterred by a mother-in-law and
sister-in-law?"

"Yes, just so," said Wilkinson, timidly.

"Well, that would depend much upon how well I might like the
gentleman; something also upon how much I might like the ladies."

"A man's wife should always be mistress in his own house."

"Oh yes, of course."

"And my mother is determined to be mistress in that house."

"Well, I will not recommend you to rebel against your mother. Is that
the station, Mr. Wilkinson?"

"Yes--that's the station. Dear me, we have forty minutes to wait
yet!"

"Don't mind me, Mr. Wilkinson. I shall not in the least dislike
waiting by myself."

"Of course, I shall see you off. Dumpling won't run away; you may be
sure of that. There is very little of the runaway class to be found
at Hurst Staple Parsonage; except you, Adela."

"You don't call me a runaway, I hope?"

"You run away from us just when we are beginning to feel the comfort
of your being with us. There, he won't catch cold now;" and so
having thrown a rug over Dumpling's back, he followed Adela into the
station.

I don't know anything so tedious as waiting at a second-class station
for a train. There is the ladies' waiting-room, into which gentlemen
may not go, and the gentlemen's waiting-room, in which the porters
generally smoke, and the refreshment room, with its dirty counter
covered with dirtier cakes. And there is the platform, which you walk
up and down till you are tired. You go to the ticket-window half a
dozen times for your ticket, having been warned by the company's
bills that you must be prepared to start at least ten minutes before
the train is due. But the man inside knows better, and does not open
the little hole to which you have to stoop your head till two minutes
before the time named for your departure. Then there are five fat
farmers, three old women, and a butcher at the aperture, and not
finding yourself equal to struggling among them for a place, you make
up your mind to be left behind. At last, however, you do get your
ticket just as the train comes up; but hearing that exciting sound,
you nervously cram your change into your pocket without counting it,
and afterwards feel quite convinced that you have lost a shilling in
the transaction.

'Twas somewhat in this way that the forty minutes were passed by
Wilkinson and Adela. No