s you'll think o'
me,'--an' I _did_ think o' you," she added, beginning to sob, "I'm
sure I--I--I even wanted to put a bit o' black crape on your clock,
but mother wouldn't let me."

"Well," interrupted Mrs. Pitcher apologetically, "I didn't think, ye
know, it 'ud look very well to have crape about on my darter's
weddin'-day. It wouldn't seem lucky. Or else I'm sure I wouldn't ha'
had no objections at all--far from it, Abel."

"But I'd ha' had objections," cried Sam, who had stood by swelling
with wrath. "I do think my feelin's ought to be considered so much as
yon chap's, be he alive or dead. It's me what's married your darter,
bain't it?"

"It be, Samuel; 'e-es I d' 'low it be," returned Mrs. Pitcher, with a
deprecating glance at the yeoman who was now rolling up the rug. "We
all on us thought as Abel was dead, ye see."

"Meanin', I suppose, as if ye knowed he was alive I shouldn't ha' had
her," retorted Sam explosively. "Well, I d' 'low, it bain't too late
yet to come to a understandin'. Jenny be married to I, sure enough,
but I bain't a-goin' to ha' no wives what be a-hankerin' arter other
folks. She may take herself off out of this wi'out my tryin' for to
hinder her. If she can't make up her mind to give over upsettin'
hersel' along o' he you may take her home-along, Mrs. Pitcher."

A dead silence ensued within the house, but Betty's strident tones
could be heard without, uplifted in shrill discourse to curious
neighbours.

"'E-es, d'ye see, he did write home so soon as he did get to
Darchester, a-tellin' of his aunt as he was a-comin' private-like so
as to surprise his sweetheart. And Susan, she did write back immediate
an' say, 'My poor bwoy, there be a sad surprise in store for _you_.'
And then when he comed they did make it up between them to keep quiet
till--"

"There's the clock, too," observed Abel, ending the pause at last.

"You can take the clock," cried Jenny, simultaneously recovering
speech and self-possession. "Take the clock, Abel Guppy, and take
yourself off. There ben a mistake, but it be all cleared up at last."

She stepped with dignity across the room, and slipped her arm through
Sam's, who made several strenuous but ineffectual efforts to shake her
off.

"You get hold o' he," cried Sam; "you cut along an' catch hold o' he.
It be he you do want."

"No, Samuel," said the incomparable Jenny with lofty resolution, "it
bain't he as I do want. I mid ha' been took up wi' some sich fooli