ter'n dirt, I suppose,
though from the start she wasn' above robbin' me. Aw, she's sly ...
Mr. Raymond, I'll curse her as she comes out, see if I don't!"

"And I swear you shall not," said Taffy. The scent of Honoria's
orange-blossom seemed to cling about them as they stood.

Lizzie looked at him vindictively. "You wanted her yourself, _I_
know. You weren't good enough, neither. Let go my fingers!"

"Go home, now. See, the people have all gone in."

"Go'st way in too, then, and leave me here to wait for her."

Taffy shut his teeth, let go her hand, and taking her by the
shoulders, swung her round face toward the gate.

"March!" he commanded, and she moved off whimpering. Once she looked
back. "March!" he repeated, and followed her down the road as one
follows and threatens a mutinous dog.

The scene by the church gate had puzzled Honoria, and in her first
letter (written from Italy) she came straight to the point, as her
custom was:

"I hope there is nothing between you and that girl who used to
be at Joll's. I say nothing about our hopes for you, but you
have your own career to look to; and as I know you are too
honourable to flatter an ignorant girl when you mean nothing,
so I trust you are too wise to be caught by a foolish fancy.
Forgive a staid matron (of one week's standing) for writing so
plainly, but what I saw made me uneasy--without cause, no
doubt. Your future, remember, is not yours only. And now I
shall trust you, and never come back to this subject."

"We are like children abroad, George's French is wonderful, but
not so wonderful as his Italian. When he goes to take a ticket
he first of all shouts the name of the station he wishes to
arrive at (for some reason he believes all foreigners to be
deaf), then he begins counting down francs one by one, very
slowly, watching the clerk's face. When the clerk's face tells
him he has doled out enough, he shouts 'Hold hard!' and
clutches the ticket. It takes time; but all the people here
are friends with him at once--especially the children, whom he
punches in the ribs and tells to 'buck up.' Their mothers nod
and smile and openly admire him; and I--well, I am happy and
want everyone else to be happy."

CHAPTER XXII.

MEN AS TOWERS.

It was May morning, and Taffy made one of the group gathered on the
roof