d Bell, who was out first. And then she returned, saying, that she
and her sister would obey their uncle's behest; but that her mother
would prefer to remain at home. "There are the peas to be eaten, you
know," said Lily.

"Send them up to the Great House," said Bernard.

"Hopkins would not allow it," said Lily. "He calls that a mixing of
things. Hopkins doesn't like mixings." And then when the game was
over, they sauntered about, out of the small garden into the larger
one, and through the shrubberies, and out upon the fields, where they
found the still lingering remnants of the haymaking. And Lily took a
rake, and raked for two minutes; and Mr Crosbie, making an attempt to
pitch the hay into the cart, had to pay half-a-crown for his footing
to the hay-makers; and Bell sat quiet under a tree, mindful of her
complexion; whereupon Mr Crosbie, finding the hay-pitching not much
to his taste, threw himself under the same tree also, quite after the
manner of Apollo, as Lily said to her mother late in the evening.
Then Bernard covered Lily with hay, which was a great feat in the
jocose way for him; and Lily in returning the compliment, almost
smothered Mr Crosbie,--by accident.

"Oh, Lily," said Bell.

"I'm sure I beg your pardon, Mr Crosbie. It was Bernard's fault.
Bernard, I never will come into a hayfield with you again." And so
they all became very intimate; while Bell sat quietly under the tree,
listening to a word or two now and then as Mr Crosbie chose to speak
them. There is a kind of enjoyment to be had in society, in which
very few words are necessary. Bell was less vivacious than her sister
Lily; and when, an hour after this, she was dressing herself for
dinner, she acknowledged that she had passed a pleasant afternoon,
though Mr Crosbie had not said very much.

CHAPTER III

The Widow Dale of Allington

As Mrs Dale, of the Small House, was not a Dale by birth, there
can be no necessity for insisting on the fact that none of the
Dale peculiarities should be sought for in her character. These
peculiarities were not, perhaps, very conspicuous in her daughters,
who had taken more in that respect from their mother than from their
father; but a close observer might recognise the girls as Dales. They
were constant, perhaps obstinate, occasionally a little uncharitable
in their judgment, and prone to think that there was a great deal in
being a Dale, though not prone to say much about it. But they had
als