ir eyes when they look at you that sends a shiver
over me."

"Has Polly so many?" asked madam, rather amused.

"Why, yes. Just a few evenings ago young Mr. Norris came in and then Mr.
Ridgway. I thought they quite glowered at each other. And what one said
the other sniffed about as if it was hardly worth saying. And Mr.
Ridgway thought cards stupid, and Phil grew quite cross and said we
would come home. It is very pleasant when there is no one there, we
four can agree so well."

"At card-playing?" in a rather diverted manner.

"Not always, not often indeed. We sing and talk and say over verses.
There are so many in that old ballad book. But lovers seem always to
break one's heart and to love the wrong one. I shall never have a lover.
I shall never marry," and her sweet voice has a delightful severity.

Madam Wetherill really laughs then.

"Oh, I am in earnest. You shall see. For when I called on Anabella
yesterday she flung her arms around my neck and cried out--'Oh,
Primrose, never, never marry! I wish I could undo my marriage. Men are
so selfish and care so little for one after they get them. And they all
say the same thing as lovers. Captain Decker was going to die if he
could not have me, and he marched off, never writing a word afterward.
And so said Mr. Parker, and now he thinks of nothing but his dinner and
his pipe afterward, and his nap, and having his clothes all laid out in
the morning and brushed, and does not want to go out anywhere, nor have
company at home. And the two hateful children brawl all the time, and
their father scolds because I cannot keep them in order. 'Tis a wretched
life and I hate it!' What think you of that, dear madam?"

"It was not a wise marriage, but I am sorry Anabella is so unhappy.
There is plenty of time yet for thee to have lovers, so do not trouble
thy golden head."

"Phil has grown so good to take me out everywhere. And we are all going
up to the farm some day to get Betty, and then on up the Schuylkill.
There are so many beautiful places, and now that May has brought
everything out in bloom, all the roads and by-ways are like pictures.
And Betty wants to see Valley Forge; so, for that matter, do I. But Phil
is worrying about some work Mr. Morris promised him."

"Yes. There are some other things to see to. Mr. Northfield wants to
instruct him about the estate, for he is very poorly."

"It seems a shame for me to have so much and Phil nothing," she said
tentatively.