Then he looked toward Francesca, and saw that Lancelot was talking to her in hurried, eager tones-pleading, apologizing, saying he hardly knew what.

"Francesca!"

The one word, uttered by the angry father, was instantly obeyed. Francesca bowed slightly to Lancelot, and went to her father's side. He stood a moment looking at the two Leighs, then his fine breeding asserted itself. He lifted his hat, gave his daughter his arm, and with a forced deliberation turned into the park.

Francesca had obeyed him, but her heart was in rebellion; and as they walked homeward and the squire muttered to himself and kicked the pebbles at his feet with a meaning indignation, she gradually began to express her anger, in most unequivocal words.

"You treated me very badly, father. I do not like to be called, as if I was a dog, 'Francesca!'"

And she imitated the dictatorial tone of the squire, with temper that made the one sweet word an intolerable offense.

"Thou should not call thyself in any such way. I never did so."

"Yes, you did, father. And you behaved badly to the Leighs. Suppose they have built a mill near us! They bought the land to build it on. All Yorkshire does not belong to us. A great many county families have had to put up with mills near them. In the long run, they find the mill a great benefit. Mr. Leigh wants to be friendly."

"Be quiet. Leigh friendly! I wonder if the world is coming to an end! I wonder if I am Squire Ather

ton or not! I wonder if thou art really Francesca Atherton! Everything is upside down, I think!"

"Mr. Lancelot Leigh met me in the birch walk. I suppose he had as much right there as I had. He got off his horse, and walked with me to the park gates. And we talked of Wordsworth and the birds and such like."

"He had no right to get off his horse. And 'birds and Wordsworth and such like' are not for thee and him to talk about. The 'weather' was far enough for him to go-and too far. I know what 'Wordsworth and such like' means. I know men send poetry where good honest prose would not dare to venture. If ever a young man and a young woman get together, they begin talking poetry. It is their way of flying round a candle."

"I never knew you to talk vulgarly before, father.”

'My lass, every one gets down to their vulgar tongue when their heart is hot with insult and wrong. I think thou behaved very badly, talking poetry and birds and such like with a spinner's son. Ask thy Aunt Loida." "Aunt Loida will say I did nothing wrong." "Thou wilt find out different."

And greatly to Francesca's amazement, Loida took the squire's part, decidedly.

"The lady of Atherton Manor," she said, "ought not to walk with young men in the lanes and by-ways. If Mr. Leigh wanted to see you," she continued, with mild indignation, " he should have called here. He had no right to get off his horse and impose his company on you."

"I liked his company. It was no imposition. I am

so weary of this life.

are all the same.

would happen!"

The days come and go, and they Oh, how I wish something strange

"It is very foolish, Francesca, to wish to see beyond your horizon. And wishes are like bits of stained glass: you see nothing through them in its true colors."

"Aunt Loida, I have heard that you were once very fond of company and gay doings. How can you live here?"

Ah, Francesca! When our joys die, they find no grave for us. We must live on, just as the rose-tree lives, though all its flowers be broken off. The spring brings roses again if the tree lives on; perhaps I am waiting for life's second spring. If you are tired of this quiet home, however, you may soon have a change. Jane Idle is going to be married, and we are going to Idleholme."

"How glad I am!

Whom is Jane going to marry?"

"I do not know the gentleman. He is called Crewe.

Jane has a brother, I believe?"

His name is Almund. boast of him when we

"I have heard talk about him. He is very clever. She used to were at school. But all the girls boasted of their brothers. Shall I have some new dresses, Aunt Loida?"

Some new dresses will be very necessary.

and let us look through your wardrobe."

Come

No better way could have been devised to soothe the irritation of the morning, and in the discussion of toilet fineries Lancelot was for the time forgotten.

But Lance was not able to forget. His ride home was rendered bitter, not only by a sense of personal defeat and humiliation, but by the anger of his father.

Stephen Leigh felt all the reasonable indignation of those whose gift is flung back in their face.

"I came up with a kind heart," he said, "and I think mysen as good a man as Rashleigh Atherton. I fancy he looks down on us a bit, but we can count Leighs with Athertons any day. And if it comes to brass, we can put down a hundred sovereigns to one that any Yorkshire squire hes! Ay-any of them!"

"I have set my heart on marrying Miss Atherton, father."

"Well, then, thou shall marry her, if thou hes set thy heart on her. Eh, Lance, iverything can be bought, but day and night."

"I am afraid your interference this morning was a mistake. You do not know anything about such men as Squire Atherton, and the society he lives in."

66 'Niver thee mind. I know all about investments and percentages; and though love may do a great deal, money does iverything. By all I could make out, that young lady seemed well suited with thee. I thought you were walking varry loving-like together, and I came up ready to settle iverything plain and square, for I hate any back-stair work.”

"I fear, however, that I have lost her forever." "Nay, I wouldn't fear anything. Hope is as cheap as despair."

"The squire is beyond calculation, and

"He is beyond pleasing, if that is what ta means. I don't blame him varry much. He sees that he'll soon be nobody where he hes been iverybody. What is the squire to the loom-lord who runs a thousand spindles and keeps a whole village thriving and busy?"

"The squire is an old friend to the village."

"My lad, it isn't the old friend, but the rich friend. Poor folk cannot afford to know poor folks. That is it."

"But even so, why should the loom-lord put down the squire? There is room for both."

"Nay, there is not. If two apples grow on one twig, and the twig is too small for both of them, the weakest is bound to fall to the ground. Atherton Village is too small for two masters, and the master that hes the 'wherewith' will hev the service. Now, then, let that proud girl go. Thy mother is fain for thee to marry Maria Crossley. Couldn't thou fancy her for a wife?" "I will marry Miss Atherton, or die a bachelor for her sake."

"Well, I niver! Thou is a fool! And I don't know whether I ought to answer thee according to thy folly or not."

Lancelot laughed.

"You are in no greater strait than Solomon was, father. First, he says: 'Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be, also, like unto him.' Then again he says: 'Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.""

"Well, then, what dost thou make by that?"

"I suppose Solomon was balancing between the homeopathy and the allopathy of morals."

"Keep thy jokes to thysen, Lance, and see if thou can find sense enough to get a new sweetheart. Maria is a varry pretty lass."

"There is only one love in the world for me, father." "Tip-top nonsense!"